Pasta with Sugar Snap Peas and Pancetta: When you kill the TV

There is a moment in my childhood that I won't ever forget - it was the day that my father and mother literally lugged our TV out onto the street to have the garbage truck take it away.  Up until that point, Brothers and I used to wake up at an insanely early hour on Saturday mornings (the same hour that we would not be able to wake up during the week) and watch hours upon hours of cartoons.  It was the stuff of legend, how early we'd wake up to sit in front of the TV.  One day, after discussion between the parents, they decided to get rid of it.  Just throw it away.  Just say good bye to it.  And they did.  It disappeared from my childhood for about five years and in the TV's place came more books, more fights with brothers and more time with Parents.  I also remember random crazy moments of more math where Father would teach me levels of math far above what they were teaching me at school and get mad when I couldn't do it as quickly as he had done them as a child but that is another story altogether.

What it meant was that Brothers and I really missed out on a lot of the popular shows of our time.  Were we scarred?  Most likely not.  And I can say that from the mommy perspective, there were no fights about TV, because there simply wasn't one in the house.  There was no TV at all to fight over, to scream to be turned off, or any yells of STOP WATCHING TV.  And that made it pretty nice.  There were lots of other sounds in the house but no TV.

That experience of my childhood has affected me about the TV in my own life.  Our TV is on for less than 1 hour a day.  I really restrict what I personally watch on TV.  I try and read my news and not watch the news.  I'm pretty strict with my own kids about TV as the kids do not watch any network TV.  They are only allowed to watch DVD's (no commercials) and only ones that are approved by me.  We only watch about 30 minutes a day, as it was a way for me to control the kids so I could clean up the house before going to our bedtime.  But in recent weeks it has become clear that we have to cut out the TV some days of the week.  Daughter #1 has too many things to do and watching TV just means that bedtime gets pushed back.  We've killed the TV at our house most days of the week and it hasn't been too bad.  Son is the one who wants it the most as he whined this evening, "I WANT THE TV" but I just grimaced and bore the yell and calmed him down.  Daughters handled it well and I have to say, it made me spend more time with the kids and focus on them.

Turnoff week is coming up (and this means turning off computers...gulp, phones as well as TV) but you might want to think about considering turning off just the TV.  Information about it is here.

What does TV have to do with this pasta dish?  Basically nothing.  But I did cook it with the kids playing in the other room with no TV on.  They didn't fight as they smelled the dish as I promised them that lunch was coming soon.  I'm not guaranteeing that the kids will take pasta over their TV, but it can't hurt to try.  Just once.  The flavors are bright and simple but delicious all melded together.  It'd be a great side dish to a main meal or just serve it as a meal on its own.

Pasta with Pancetta and Sugar Snap Peas
Serves 5 to 8

Ingredients
1 lb pasta (your choice)
8 oz pancetta, chopped fine (or substitute ham or bacon if you can’t find pancetta)
16 oz sugar snap peas, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup chicken stock
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
In a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse and drain and set aside.

In a cold, large frying pan (cold meaning it is not on the stove preheating, and large meaning one big enough to hold all the ingredients for the final toss), add pancetta and about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Place pan on stove and turn stove heat to medium. Allow pancetta to cook slowly, rendering the fat, for about 5 minutes. Add sugar snap peas and continue to cook for another 2 minutes until peas are bright green. Add chopped garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add chicken stock and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste and then toss in pasta. Toss and continue to toss well, mixing all the ingredients, adding more olive oil if the pasta looks dry. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Printable recipe 

more attractive than TV?  ah....maybe...not.