Last night we chowed down on one of the simplest and most satisfying pastas in our repertoire: Pasta with Greens and Sausage.

You need a fat sausage for every two people (your choice), some washed and chopped greens (left fairly wet--I like mustard greens), a bit of chopped onion, garlic, and olive oil. Grated Pecorino or Parmigiano cheese to taste at the end.

Put the water for the pasta on to boil, plenty of it.

Saute the garlic and onion. Slit the sausage and drop small bits into the saute pan, hack them with a wooden spoon if they're too big. The sausage doesn't have to completely cook before you add the greens. If the greens are fresh and young enough not to have woody stems (or you don't use the stems), they'll cook (steam) quickly with the top on the pan.

Add the pasta of your choice when the water boils. I use something stumpy, like penne. The "sauce" or "condiment" shouldn't take any longer than the pasta.

When the pasta is almost done (a tad too al dente) drain and add it in the saute pan to finish cooking for a couple minutes and come together with the "condiment." If it looks dry add some pasta water that you've reserved.

Add the cheese and serve. You can add some red pepper flakes at the end as well if you like.

Mmmmm.

What is this Bottarga thing? Fish eggs, but not caviar. In Sardinia, the roe of Muggine, gray mullet, is dried and then either grated over pasta, or machined and put in a bottle so you can spoon it out.

The Sardinians are clever enough to have mullet farms in order to harvest the roe.

In any case, you can sprinkle or grate Bottarga over warm Tomino cheese or over pasta. Martha just returned from Sardinia, bringing a bottle of "machined" Bottarga, so we just bought some fresh ravioli stuffed with shrimp, ricotta, and squash blossoms, cooked them in boiling, salted water for three minutes, drained them, then drizzled them with oil and sprinkled the Bottarga generously on top.

As you can see, it looks wonderful, eh? A true one pot gourmet feast, a great treat for your vacation.

Just in case folks are picky, you can just tell them it's bread crumbs on top of their pasta. It won't be until they take a bite that they'll suspect something fishy is going on.

There are lots of ways to turn cauliflower into a topping for pasta, but most contain the secret ingredient: anchovy. It's a nice combo.

My recipe is very simple. It's for folks who don't want to end up doing a lot of dishes. After all, you're on vacation, no? It takes a pot to boil the cauliflower--and later the pasta, and one to saute the ingredients you see above, plus some olive oil and the optional ingredient: peperoncini, hot red peppers.

It's a white dish, so you can also add chopped parsley at the end to give it some color.

Ingredients: Pasta (I'd use penne), a head of cauliflower, garlic to taste, 4-6 salted anchovies, olive oil, and grating cheese.

Boil the water, then add some salt, a short palmful of sale grosso big salt crystals for a large pot. Add the cauliflower and boil it until it's quite soft.

Remove the cauliflower and let sit on the board to cool while you chop the garlic and anchovies. Heat a pan, add 4 tablespoons of olive oil or so and add the garlic, anchovies, and hot peppers and cook until the garlic is soft.

Start the pasta. Chop the cauliflower (or put it in a bowl and squash it with a fork) and add it to the pan to warm in the oil.

When the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the pot with the cauliflower, garlic and oil. If the pasta doesn't coat with the sauce, add some fresh oil and give it a toss while it's still on the heat.

Then all you need to do is turn it out onto the plates and serve with the grated cheese.

Variations: You can add chopped tomatoes, or cover the pasta with homemade breadcrumbs. It's a gutsy sauce, so it goes well with whole wheat or farro pasta if you prefer.