It’s fun to make a meal that everyone enjoys cooking — and enjoys eating at the end. That was certainly the case with our Week 4 meal, for which our you ng chefs made a tasty pasta dish with red sauce, plus a green Caesar salad with homemade dressing and croutons.

We knew it would be a hit from the moment we asked “does anybody like pasta or spaghetti?”

Every hand went up in the air, and the group broke into an enthusiastic cheer.

There was lots to do with these recipes, but the chefs quickly jumped into action.

With sharp knife skills, Shainysse Sanchez peeled and diced the onion for the sauce, while Carlos Rivera and Nickless Albaladejo chopped the zucchini into a new and different shape.

“We chopped the zucchini into half moons!” Carlos said with excitement.

When the onion and zucchini were ready, Shainysse took charge of sauteéing them in olive oil in a big skillet pan on our hotplate.

 

Meanwhile, everyone wanted a turn chopping turkey sausage links that looked like hotdogs into bits for cooking. They were interested to learn that slicing our kitchen knives crosswise on the links made smooth cuts that were easy to chop into hamburger texture with the “rocking” motion they had learned in Weeks 1-3.

Then it was on to the salad, with everyone taking a part.

Nickless teamed with Iralys Borges to measure and whisk together mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar and spicy Worcestershire sauce for the dressing, while Jahira Frazier got to show off her muscles squeezing fresh lemons with our bright yellow squeezer.

Ivette Perez led the way tearing and chopping the Romaine lettuce for the salad, with an assist from Carlos.

Ivette also took charge of browning the sausage in the skillet before adding the onion, zucchini and chopped canned tomatoes to make the sauce for the penne pasta that was boiling away next to the sauce pan.

Carlos, meanwhile, worked with Ms. Linda to make the croutons from chewy sourdough bread for baking in the oven.

When it all came together, the Bayard chefs couldn’t have been more excited.

They spread the pasta across a large white platter and then covered it end to end with the red sauce. For added color and flavor, they took turns sprinkling chopped pieces of green basil on top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

“This smells so good!” they exclaimed — and it looked good, too.

Everyone liked the meal.

“It was really good and had a lot of flavor,” Ivette said. “I liked the salad.”

“The zucchini wasn’t bad,” Carlos added, which was high praise from someone who doesn’t like vegetables.

“I liked the whole thing,” Jahira declared. “The turkey and sauce and the salad with croutons.”

She liked it so much she wanted to share it with her family. “I’ll let my brother try it and let my mom try it,” she said with a big smile.

We bet they liked it.