The recipe below came about through social networking at it’s best. I follow @laurasrecipes and she tweeted about goat cheese and olive pasta. As you may know, I’m not the most regular cook but these two ingredients caught my eye after our visit to both goat and olive farms the day before.

I followed the link, which led me to Saveur’s “Best of the Web” — handpicked links to the staff’s favorite recipes and articles. This led to a blog called food & style.

The recipe that inspired me to whip up a delicious meal for my dear friend Brooke and I last night, is called “A pasta for all seasons: Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Herbes de Provence, cured olives and fresh goat cheese.”

My version included slight variations. For example, I didn’t want to buy Herbes de Provence so I just used oregano and sage.  The store didn’t carry guitar string pasta so I went with linguini. Also, I don’t really like the taste of capers so I left them out completely. Finally, I was too cheap to buy fresh basil and the Pure Luck goat cheese was made with basil. I didn’t miss it.

The key to this dishes’ deliciousness? The basil goat cheese purchased at Pure Luck, and the amazing olives de Nyons that I found at the Whole Foods olive bar.

To connect with the people I follow on Twitter, check out my Taste of Austin list. You can also join the Tasty Touring group on Facebook to hear about future events like our recent farm tour.