Lulu & Georgia Kelim Rug + Legs + Matching Pasta
Our house is pretty tiny – we’ve been over this – but it feels bigger than it is because we use our patio area so much that it’s essentially a second living room. A couple of months ago, I decided to expand the patio by laying deck over a long, narrow spot that wasn’t much more than a ditch running alongside our dining area…but the guys who I hired to do the work insisted that they couldn’t match the flooring that was already installed; that color, they said, was no longer in production. (It is. I was in Home Depot the other day and hello, it is right there. I am annoyed, but it’s also my fault for not looking into it myself, and whatever, it’s just flooring.)
So I’m not thrilled about having a two-tone patio, but my plan has always been to put a colorful area rug under the table and chairs to pull the area together and make the overall space feel less choppy. The one I chose: the gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous orange-and-red Kelim rug pictured above. It’s made out of recycled plastic straws and confusingly affordable (only $116 for the largest size), cleans off with a quick blast from the hose, is pretty much industructible, and works indoors too. Obsessed.
Another thing I’m obsessed with: linguica, apparently (this is going to be relevant in a minute; hold on). I first heard of linguica when reading the ingredients on the labor pizza that I ordered when I was pregnant with Goldie. At the time I thought that it sounded vaguely pornographic and definitely not like something I’d especially enjoy consuming, but it turns out that it’s really just Portuguese sausage. I’ve been meaning to try it for awhile now (because even though it was apparently somewhere in the pile of meats and vegetables sitting atop the labor pizza I consumed, I couldn’t figure out which one it was), and so when I saw a Mario Batali recipe for tomato and chorizo spaghetti in People, I decided to swap in linguica for the chorizo. Because what could possibly go wrong when you start improvising by putting ingredients you’ve never tasted into dishes you’ve never made before?
This story should have a very different ending, but what happened was that I made a pasta so delicious that the four of us ended up consuming a truly enormous bowl of spaghetti (a bowl that I had intended to include leftovers for the next night’s dinner) in one sitting. Like, easily.
This pasta is a little sweet and a little salty, hearty but not too heavy for summertime, and phenomenal ifIdosaysomyself. (It’s probably also phenomenal with the chorizo that Mario Batali says you should put in it. But life’s more fun when you ignore expert instructions, n’est-ce pas?)
JORDAN’S SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATOES AND SAUSAGE
(Based on a Mario Batali recipe. But better. Probably.)
What You Need:
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- 1 package linguica, casings removed, cut into 1/4″ rounds
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1 24-oz can diced tomatoes
- 4 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
- Olive oil
- Sea salt & pepper to taste
What You Do:
- Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain, reserving 3/4 cup cooking water, and toss lightly with olive oil.
- Meanwhile, separate the basil leaves and stems, and finely chop the stems. Set aside the leaves.
- Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the linguica, garlic and basil stems, and cook, stirring occasionally, until linguica is browned and heated through, about five minutes.
- Add the diced tomatoes to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down a bit further. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
- Add cooked spaghetti to the skillet, adding cooking water to loosen the sauce if necessary, and toss to coat.
- Roughly chop basil leaves, and add basil leaves and half of the cheese to the spaghetti mixture. Toss to combine.
- Serve with the remainder of the grated cheese on the side.
(The pasta sort of matches the rug.)
Let’s close this one out with a lovely slideshow of some other super pretty picks from Lulu & Georgia, because why not.
