The penne pasta is al
dente and hanging out in a colander on the counter. When I was growing up, my mother whipped me with a wet noodle
if ever I forgot to rinse cooked spaghetti under cold water. Only recently have I found out that this is actually a bad
idea (thanks, Mario, though I'm not exactly sure why it's bad), but
still, I feel a little weird about leaving my penne unrinsed.
Now begins the sauce part, but here is where I have learned lesson #648 about Holiday cooking. Never assume that the satellite kitchen in which you're going to cook the Holiday ham ("satellite" meaning not your home base) is going to have all the equipment you need.
But in the deep recesses of my mother's "tupperware cabinet," I found a Benriner, the Japanese version of a mandoline. I grated a block of medium cheddar and Monterey jack that had been shoved in the freezer for a half hour to make it easier to grate to make 5 cups of shredded cheese. On the Benriner, the cheese actually came out looking more like long, flat noodles.
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