My 22nd birthday dinner with Gabe

Instead of going out to eat for my 22nd birthday, Gabe and I decided to cook a nice dinner for two. Since it was almost MCAT time, I think I was really just in the mood to do something low key. We decided on Bucatini All'Amatriciana and Garlic and Herb Crusted Lamb Chops. This was probably one of the more complex dinners we've done, but everything turned out really well. I think this is also one of the times I actually followed a recipe completely. If I did anything different than what the recipes said, it was probably just slight measurement adjustments.

We used this recipe for the bucatini - another Batali recipe. It was really quite a challenge to find guanciale, but I finally found it at a tiny Italian deli in the west 30's. I'm glad we used that instead of pancetta or regular bacon because it definitely made a big difference and added a really unique flavor. Normally I hate really fatty meat, but this was the one exception. Gabe and I were really pleased with the way this turned out - perhaps the best thing we've made together thus far.


We also followed this for the lamb chops. I had never cooked with lamb before, so this was fun. It turned out better than I thought it would, and it was very tasty. The only thing is that one of my chops was extremely rare. Normally, I do like rare meat, but if I were to make this again, I would keep it in the oven for a few minutes longer. The flash was a bit bright, but I think you can tell from the picture that it was quite rare.

We had a great bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (La Tour de By, Medoc, 2003, France) to accompany the food.