Leftover Magic

Like many people, I often find myself without the time or energy to food shop.  Almost with bi-weekly precision, the rations of fresh ingredients and sundries begin to dry up in the house.  Sometimes all you are left with are the basics; items by themselves which, upon first glance, appear to offer little in the way of a satisfying meal.  This meal is a testament to the belief that you can almost always throw together something satisfying, if not amazing, with the basics.  This of course all depends on what your ‘basics’ are.

On this very night I found myself without any “real” food in the house.  As the hour hand spun towards ungodly times for dinner preparation and my stomach pangs grew audible I was forced to think fast.  I rooted around to see what the cabinets and fridge had to offer.  I first found a bag of arugula from one of the gardens I run that was not truly suitable for a salad.  I had gleaned it from a bed of greens that was going to seed; in this bag of arugula were many flowering buds and woody stems.  Still unsure of how it would fit into something I washed it anyway and continued my search.

Next I stumbled upon some walnuts in the cupboard, one of the items I always try to keep a ration of.  As I looked in the nearly empty fruit bowl I saw that I had a sorry looking lemon.  I quickly realized that I had the basic ingredients for an arugula pesto.  

In to the Cuisinart went the above ingredients with a couple healthy glugs of olive oil, a little grated parmeasan, pepper, and a little salt.  I left that sucker run for a couple of minutes while I scoured the kithchen for what would go with it.

I found some dried nests of linguine.  I always buy these at the store.  They keep really well and are a great substitute for fresh pasta.  While some may scoff at the extra couple of bucks it costs to buy them I say “who cares”.  Real pasta is made with flour and eggs.  Pasta that you buy in a box is full of crap that is just empty starch.  Buying good pasta prepared with eggs insures that you get a good dose of protein from your pasta.  I find the nests to be perfectly portioned and much more filling that the boxed stuff.  

While I set the nests in heavily salted water to boil I looked in the fridge once again.  I discovered, tucked away in the dark corner of a drawer, two soft and flimsy summer squash.  I quickly diced them up with some onions and started browning them in a pan in olive oil and butter.

Another thing I aim to never let my fridge be without is cheap white wine.  Cheap wine, like ketchup, should be on hand at all times.  When frying or making a saute, wine is a great tool for enhancing flavor and making basic sauces from de-glazing.  

Another great part of the pasta nests is that the cooking time is half of normal dried pasta.  By the time the veggies were finished the pasta was too. I placed the dripping pasta straight into the pan sans colander and stirred the whole mess together with a little more butter and wine.  I quickly plated the pasta, placed a huge dollop of pesto in the center, grated some more cheese on top, and sprinkled some parsley on top.  Voila !!! Dinner is served!

David