Dinner Recipes

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Pre-Listening

Describe a favorite recipe you enjoy making. How often do you prepare this dish?

Listen and Read

Listen to the recording on dinner meals, answer the questions, and then read along with the audio recording.

This evening, I’m going to make some delicious spaghetti and a healthy salad for dinner following an old Italian recipe my grandmother used to make all of the time. First of all, I put a pot of water on the stove to heat it up until it boils. I add about a teaspoon of olive oil to the pot. I brown up some ground beef in a skillet on medium heat with a little olive oil, add some finely chopped fresh onions and garlic, and finally sprinkle in a little salt and pepper.

Once the mixture is brown, I drain off the excess fat, add some chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, add a pinch of oregano and basil, and add some sliced mushrooms. I let the entire mixture simmer on the burner until the spaghetti noodles are ready. Now, once the water is boiling in the pot, I turn down the heat a little, add the spaghetti noodles, and let it cook until the noodles are nice and tender, but I don’t want to overcook them. Once the noodles are done, I serve the spaghetti sauce on top of a plate of noodles.

For the salad, I mix a variety of leafy vegetables including spinach in a bowl, along with some beets, sliced carrots, and tomatoes, topped with bacon bits and croutons. I prepare my own vinegar and olive oil dressing. Sometimes, I prepare garlic bread to complement the meal.

Discussion

Does your family have a recipe for making spaghetti? How about some type of pasta or other Italian food? Are there any unique spaghetti recipes in your hometown? One example is squid ink spaghetti, which I first tried in Japan.

Online Investigation

There are countless ways to prepare spaghetti, and it shouldn’t be hard to find one that suits your taste. Search for a recipe for each of these main ingredients and share your recipe with other students: seafood spaghetti, vegetarian spaghetti, beef spaghetti, chicken spaghetti.

Online Listening Practice (from www.esl-lab.com):