More than just a pretty chest

In the Martha and Me post, I discussed Martha Stewart. Let's move on to Giada De Laurentiis. The granddaughter of movie producer Gino De Laurentiis, Giada has risen to fame on the Food Network in the past couple of years. Her show, Everyday Italian, is beautifully shot with closeups of her hands as she squeezes lemon and closeups of her chest...well, all the time. It's food porn, and it's a little distracting.

I suppose the reason for the shots of Giada's cleavage is to attract viewers outside of the Food Network's core female audience. I ran this busom conspiracy theory by Jon. He was puzzled. Apparently, the chest isn't a distraction for him. He's so annoyed by Giada suddenly launching into an Italian accent on the Italian ingredients that he hasn't noticed the chest. I guess we all have our pet peeves.

But enough about the boobs. Tonight, we tried an actual Giada recipe from her Everyday Pasta cookbook. And it was delicious. The flavors of the pancetta, onion and basil combine beautifully with the egg. The pasta adds a nice texture. The recipe is called "Breakfast Scramble" in the book and can be found under a different name here. As always, I made some changes which I noted.

Breakfast Scramble

1/2 cup orzo pasta

10 large eggs (This seemed like a lot of egg, so I reduced it to 8 and it worked fine)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces smoked mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I only have regular mozzarella on hand and I was worried that it would not be flavorful enough, so I substituted grated Parmesan--about 1/4 cup. I really like Parmesan and asparagus together.)

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon butter

4 ounces pancetta, coarsely chopped (The pancetta I buy comes in 3 oz. packages so I used that amount.)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I had and used red onion.)

8 thin asparagus stalks, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces (To try to get more veggies in this meal, I increased this amount to 12 stalks. I'd double it to 16 next time.)

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the orzo and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain the orzo. (Note: Interestingly, I noticed after I finished cooking that the Barilla orzo instructions call for 9 minutes of cooking time. I followed Giada's directions, and they worked. At 9 minutes, it ould have been mush.)

Whisk the eggs, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese and basil. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and saute until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the asparagus and saute until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the orzo and stir to coat. Add the egg mixture. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture until the eggs are softly set, about 4 minutes.

Transfer the egg mixture to a serving bowl and serve.