We’re about halfway through the current season of The Bachelorette, and I’m loving it so much that last Monday, I invited some of my best girlfriends over to watch the show and enjoy a home-cooked meal. I knew that I would be coming straight from work on Monday and wouldn’t have a lot of time to put together a dinner, so I searched for a recipe that I could make ahead of time. I found the perfect dish in this recipe for Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas from Giada’s Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2008) by Giada De Laurentiis.

Last week, a good friend suggested that a few of us get together and cook dinner on Saturday night to catch up. Always excited to try out a new recipe, I quickly volunteered my roommate Nicole to prepare the main course with me. We decided we’d make a pasta, our friend Kristen would make a salad, and Elizabeth would handle the wine. Whenever I make a pasta, my first instinct is to turn to Giada De Laurentiis, and I found a great recipe in her book Giada’s Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2008) for Tagliatelle with Smashed Peas, Sausage, and Ricotta Cheese. It sounded like the perfect pasta for a cold winter night.

This past Saturday, while perusing the stalls of fresh produce at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, I stumbled upon a huge tower of perfectly ripe cantaloupes. The combination of hot, sticky weather and the juicy-cool melon inspired me to take a stab at a new spin on a classic summer flavor combo: Prosciutto and Melon Soup from Giada De Laurentiis’s Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites (Clarkson Potter, 2008).