We were sitting out in the back yard and Victor said “You didn’t take anything out of the freezer this morning”.  I hadn’t.  There was a package of fresh tortellini in the ‘fridge, and some veggies that needed using up.  I told him I thought I’d cook the tortellini and do a  bit of a veg sauce with it.

And it was at that point I heard those two words I just love to hear… “I’ll cook”.

There’s just something about having dinner cooked for me now and again that just makes life grand.

I love to cook and would absolutely hate not being able to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but it is also just so wonderful to have dinner prepared for me once in a while.  And Victor does know how to prepare a meal!

Where I was going to make one dish, Victor made two – eggplant parmesan and the tortellini melange.

The eggplant was excellent!  He took a baby eggplant and sliced it and breaded it with seasoned panko breadcrumbs.  He overlapped the breaded slices on a sheet pan, added a bit of sauce I had made a few days ago, fresh mozzarella, and a bit more sauce.  Into a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, into a hot skillet went some olive oil, garlic, pancetta, yellow zucchini, green zucchini, broccoli and tomatoes.  He cooked it all together and then added the cooked tortellini, some grated cheese, fresh from the garden herbs, and a sprinkling of pepper.

It is funny how the same ingredients can be imagined so differently.  It’s one of the reasons why we seldom have the same meal twice.  We do have our favorites that we make now and again, but for the most part, if we’re not making a specific recipe,  meals are put together on a whim.

And we have lots of whim in our house!