Spaghetti doesn’t sound fancy, right?  Well try this recipe: Giada’s Spaghetti with Beef, Smoked Almonds, and Basil.

This made the birthday week menu mostly by virtue of its beef content, but I think I ended up loving it more than the birthday man.  The sauce is technically more like an Italian salsa (read: no cooking!), and it was so light and summery and just plain wonderful.  The lemon, basil, and tomato combined into this perfect sidekick to the pasta and steak.  I never would have thought this dish would feel light, but it does.  Basil + maters + lemon + steak = best.  The pasta doesn’t hurt anything either.

This is reason #652 to plant several basil plants at your home.  It’s inexpensive to throw 2 1/4 cups of basil into a sauce when you’ve got buckets and buckets of the stuff right out your front door.  I would be less inclined to make this dish if I had to buy 2 1/4 cups of basil from the store.

You could make friends with people who have thriving basil plants.  That’s a solid secondary option.