Pasta Archives – Page 2 of 3

Make Your Pasta Pretty in Pink

Savor the flavor of this pink pasta dish made with pantry staples.

Years ago we used to frequent an Italian restaurant where the owner named a pink pasta dish after himself. The sauce contained chopped shrimp and capers. My husband, who usually avoids sauces with cream, enjoys this dish.

The other thing he avoids eating is capers. In fact, the first time he decided to order this dish at the restaurant, he requested it without capers. I can still see the owner, Vincenzo, glaring down at him before answering matter-of-factly while gesturing, “You’ll have it with the capers. The capers are a what gives it the flavor.”

How could Michael argue with such authoritativeness? So, whenever I make this dish at home, I am sure to remind him with a smile, “The capers are a what gives it the flavor.” Indeed and this meal couldn’t be simpler. I don’t often buy cream, but I had a shelf stable carton hanging around just in case the mood should strike. Not a bad suggestion for your pantry.

The other day I was in the mood for cheesecake, so I opened the carton of cream to make some. What to do with the remainder? Take some shrimp out of the freezer and make Spaghetti alla Vincenzo, of course. No waste, remember?

spaghetti with shrimp and pink sauce on a white plate

What’s in a pink sauce? Tomatoes and cream. Throw some dried herbs in for good measure. What did I use here? I had previously pureed some ingredients in the food processor for pizza sauce and had just enough left over to make this. Here’s what went into that sauce:

a few cloves of garlic
canned chopped tomatoes
dried basil
dried oregano
dried thyme
olive oil

After sitting in the refrigerator for a couple days, the flavors have had a chance to marry and it’s even more delicious.

What Else Goes Into This Pink Pasta Sauce?

While the pasta water boiled, I put the aforementioned tomato sauce into a skillet to simmer along with some capers.

I boiled the shrimp shells in another pot to make stock. I pulled out of the refrigerator a small container of leftover white bean soup and the cream. Here I go with all my bits and bobs of leftovers…Zero waste cooking!

Yes, they were THE REASON I decided to make this dish. You could certainly make it with just tomatoes and cream. But the previously prepared bean soup was also made with shrimp originally and I figured that the bean puree would add another depth of flavor and creaminess to my sauce along with the freshly prepared shrimp stock.

The Takeaway

Here’s why I don’t do recipes and you don’t have to either. Get creative with what you have and find a way to use everything. Develop your intuition in the kitchen. Cooking wonderful meals really is that simple.

After cutting my raw shrimp in half, I seasoned them with garlic powder, salt and French thyme. I added them to the sauce to cook during the last couple of minutes of cooking the pasta because shrimp cook very quickly. You don’t want to toughen them by overcooking. Just a couple of minutes turns them pink and opaque.

A simple and elegant meal that brings us together as we recall fond memories. That is what food is all about. Don’t you agree?

Read Shrimp and Grits next for another shrimp meets pantry meal based on memories. What do your memories inspire you to cook?

Esteemed Greens and Endearing Ears Are Here

Combine fresh, frozen and pantry items for simple meals like this pasta with greens anytime.

There is something so comforting about pasta. If I want to make it lower carb, I just ramp up the ratio of vegetables to pasta. With this orecchiette, little ear shaped pasta, it’s very easy to put more pasta into someone else’s bowl who wants it. More greens in mine. Who doesn’t love the versatility of pasta with greens?

I once had in an Italian restaurant: lamb sausage with rapini and orecchiette with brodo, which means broth. Although I love rapini, I have difficulty finding it even when it’s in season. So kale or another bitter green make a more frequent appearance in my house because everyone sells kale and if it’s fresh enough when purchased, it will stay fresh in my refrigerator for a couple weeks.

If you can’t find orecchiette, try another pasta shape such as small shells or elbow macaroni. What’s in your pantry that will lend itself to a simple meal?

I love sausage of all kinds too, but I don’t buy it very often. Other ground meats are more versatile and I usually have some in the freezer, so here’s what I do instead: use ground turkey or any other ground meat that I have on hand and season it up with spices you would find in sausage. In other words, I can usually make this dish with ingredients on hand from the pantry, freezer and refrigerator.

Ingredients for This Pasta With Greens:

ground turkey or lamb
minced garlic
salt
crushed fennel seeds
dried basil
oregano
thyme
paprika
red pepper flakes
lamb or chicken broth/stock
rapini or kale or other bitter greens
orecchiette or other short pasta

Brown the meat, add garlic and spices. Then I add some kind of broth. Here I used a little chicken broth and some lamb stock that I had in the freezer. Add the kale and let it simmer until it’s done to your liking. Cooking without a recipe is so fun and easy.

If you’re making pasta or any number of things that require boiling water, please put the pot of water on to boil before you begin the other prep work. You don’t want to be waiting around for water to boil when everything else is ready. Once your pasta is al dente, scoop it out with a spider and add to the pot or skillet that you have used to cook your meat and vegetables. Sprinkle with parmesan and enjoy!

A spider that you actually want to find lurking around your kitchen

The spider is helpful because it allows you to keep your salty, starchy pasta water in case you want to add a little to whatever pasta dish you are creating. I also find it quicker to wash than a colander. Win win!

Looking forward to finding some rapini this season. If you can get it, you might blanch it before adding to this dish in order to remove some of the bitterness. Depends on your palate, which is what cooking without a recipe is all about.

What’s your go-to dish that you can make with ingredients usually on hand? Here’s another simple meal with almost sausage and pasta.

Shockingly Good Pork Chops For All

Moist, flavorful pork chops will become one of your favorite simple meals.

When I was first married, I made the mistake of overcooking pork chops. Since then they haven’t been on my husband’s top ten list. Too bad…I enjoy them occasionally, but like anything that’s been overcooked, I don’t want them to end up dry and tough. Thankfully I learned how to make them moist and flavorful and you can also add them to your repertoire of simple meals.

Brining them has been a game changer and it’s the only way I prepare pork chops these days. I discovered this method on thekitchn.com a few years ago and will be forever grateful because since then, my pork chops are amazing.

Brining

A couple hours before cooking them, I make a brine (salt and water combined with spices) and let the pork chops marinate in it in the refrigerator. The ratio is 1 Tablespoon of coarse salt to 1 cup of water. Use less salt if it’s finely ground.

Start by heating 1 cup of water with 3 Tablespoons of salt to dissolve it along with any spices you choose. Here I added a bay leaf, rosemary, fennel and some red pepper flakes. I often use coriander and garlic.

Pour that solution into a shallow dish and then add 2 more cups of cool water. Let that come to room temperature and then submerge your pork chops in the brine. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Making lots of pork chops? Make more brine following the same ratio. Heat the total amount of salt needed to dissolve in one cup of water and then add the rest of the water needed to complete the brine and cool the solution.

Cooking the Chops

To cook, preheat the oven to 400. Then heat an ovenproof skillet on the stove. Once hot, pat pork chops dry and smear some oil on them. Place them into the skillet on the stovetop for a few minutes. Once they have gotten a bit of color on the underside, turn them over and place the skillet into the oven to finish cooking. My boneless pork chops only required 6 minutes in the oven. You will need a bit longer if your pork chops are thicker or contain a bone. Intuitive cooking without recipes starts with paying attention.

I really like something fruity with pork, so I decided to zest a mandarin orange and cook the zest in a skillet with olive oil and sliced onions. Seasoned with a little ground fennel and rosemary. Wilted spinach in there before tossing with pasta. I enjoy those flavors, the slight bitterness of the citrus zest juxtaposed with the sweet onion and spices. Michael requested mashed potatoes and gravy for next time…Am I surprised? LOL. He knows what he likes in these simple meals!

For an unexpected twist on those mashed potatoes for next time, please read No Small Potatoes next.

The Way to Amazing Bolognese Sauce

Patience and a few quality ingredients are worth it if you want an authentic bolognese sauce.

While I was ordering porcini and every local specialty that I had read about while in Italy, my husband ordered bolognese at dinner on several occasions. I laughed and said, “You’ve been eating spaghetti your whole life! Why do you keep ordering bolognese? Don’t you want to try something new?” Not until our trip was ending in Rome did I decide to try it. Wow! I had completely missed the boat on this one in my ignorance. An authentic bolognese sauce is not your mother’s American-Italian spaghetti sauce. It is in a league of its own.

Upon returning home, I sought to replicate that sauce by trying all kinds of recipes…and falling short. Why? I was attempting to make a leaner version than what the instructions told me. Lean ground sirloin just will not cut it in this case. This sauce is really all about the fat…and slow simmering all afternoon. You really can’t skimp on either one. Do you want an authentic bolognese sauce?

Once I realized the error of my ways, I began buying chuck roast at the supermarket and asked the butcher to grind it fine. That was a turning point. Chuck has the right amount of fat, which equals flavor. Principles matter in cooking without recipes. That’s how you develop your intuition in the kitchen.

Today I decided to use some ground meats that I had in the freezer: 2 pounds of ground beef (15 % fat) and a pound of ground wild boar, which to my surprise was rather lean. The boar meat that I had purchased previously was much fattier, so I imagined it would work well in this sauce. No matter. It’s all good.

I also took out of the freezer a couple of chicken livers and an inch of bacon. Pancetta is traditional, but I really like the smokiness of bacon and I usually have some in the freezer.

Chop Ingredients

If you have a food processor, it is very useful for making this dish because you want everything to be chopped up very small in order to create a very silky texture. So, here’s what I chopped and put into separate bowls first:

one huge onion
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
6 cloves of garlic
2 organic chicken livers
one inch of bacon
1 2/3 cans of tomatoes (28 ounce cans)

The Rest of the Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef (15% fat)
1 pound ground wild boar
butter
olive oil
milk
dry white wine
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
less than 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt

Why these amounts? Because it’s what I had on hand. Another carrot or stalk of celery or a couple more chicken livers would have been great, but I was using up what I had in the refrigerator/freezer. I usually use a tiny bit less tomato too, but I had part of a can open, so why not finish it?

How To Make the Sauce

So, here’s how I do this in my favorite big pot: Melt a tablespoon of butter and add the ground chicken livers and bacon. Trust me on this. The flavor is great and no one will say it tastes like liver.

Once that mixture is no longer pink, add the onions and let them help you scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Cook those for a few minutes before adding the carrots and celery and a little olive oil. Keep stirring and cook for a few minutes.

Then, add the meat and continue to cook while stirring. Pour a cup or so of dry white wine into the pot at this point, which Lidia Bastianich says helps to break up the meat into smaller pieces. Although I used to put the wine in later, I think this makes more sense. Additionally, you can better eyeball the necessary amount. The wine should just cover the meat. Let that cook down a bit and add the garlic.

Then add about a cup of milk. For this dish, I specifically buy whole milk. It’s the only time I do so. Don’t tell my husband, but I used 1 % this time because that’s what I had…so that’s why I used so little in comparison to the other ingredients. If I had whole milk, I might have used up to another cup. I decided there was enough going on between the bacon and the butter and a little extra tomato…

Grate a little nutmeg in there and add the tomatoes and about a tablespoon of tomato paste. Season with salt. Reduce heat to simmer and stir frequently for 4 hours. Yes, it really does need that long, in my opinion. If you don’t have all afternoon to devote to this, don’t bother. Don’t worry. It’s totally worth the investment of time and it freezes well, so you won’t have to do this again for a while. The amount of sauce I made here would easily serve 10 people.

A glass of Rosso di Montalcino with the original bottle and a wedge of parmesan on a plate in front of a picture of Tuscany — Make sure you have a good red wine with this dinner!

To Serve

You could serve this with any pasta that you desire, but we like a fresh, eggy tagliatelle if we can get it. Otherwise, dried is fine, but I think it must be eggy. Dried egg noodles will even do if you can’t find anything else. We might toss the cooked pasta in butter before combining it with the sauce. Yes, it’s not a low-fat meal…but it’s worth the calories once in a while…especially if you don’t eat a heaping plate full. I know that it’s hard to exercise self-control when an authentic bolognese sauce is this good, but in Italy pasta was merely the first course of our dinner. Can you believe we actually lost weight there? That’s what happens when you walk everywhere. Note to self: walk a little extra tomorrow…

Ready for another authentic pasta sauce I learned about in Italy? Read Skillful With Shellfish next for another simple meal idea.

No Nonsense Spaghetti Squash Toss

Want to know how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them?

I am not going to lie to you. Spaghetti squash does not replace real spaghetti. I grew up eating it that way because I was gluten free for most of my childhood. I’m talking about before it was fashionable and there weren’t a lot of alternatives at the market. So, although I eat wheat these days, I do usually try to boost my ratio of vegetables to pasta whenever possible. Here’s one way to learn how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them. Once this squash has been cooked, all you have to do is scrape out the flesh using the tines of a fork. The squash naturally comes out in thin strips like spaghetti. Thus its cute name…

Spaghetti squash with basil pesto, linguine, chicken and red bell pepper on a white plate — Spaghetti squash with basil pesto, linguine, chicken and red bell pepper

I had some fresh basil, so I decided to make pesto with:

garlic
salt
basil
walnuts
olive oil
parmesan cheese

No food processor? No problem. Please read Nuts About Pesto for advice. Are you vegan? Leave out the cheese. I have made lots of pesto without it.

Looking for a little color to add to this dish, I found part of a red bell pepper to chop up and add to the pesto.

Cooking Squash

I baked a whole spaghetti squash for about an hour and a half until it was tender when pierced with a fork. Whole? Yes, why not? You can cut it in half and roast it cut side down in a baking dish with a little water. It cooks faster that way. But I just wanted it to be ready once I was finished with a video conference. So putting it into the oven whole worked just fine.

I had just a little bit of linguine left in a package. Not enough for a whole serving, so it made sense to mix it with the spaghetti squash after boiling. Slowly incorporating more vegetables in your diet is so easy.

I had some cooked chicken in the freezer, so after defrosting that, I tossed it into the boiling water with the pasta during the last couple minutes of cooking. Once they were done, I pulled them out with tongs and mixed with the pesto and red pepper in a bowl. Adding a little of the pasta water helps to complete the sauce.

Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple meals are the best.

A slice of pizza with spaghetti squash and pasta on a white plate — Leftovers were even better served cold the next day with leftover homemade pizza.

What else can you do with left over squash? You can find all kinds of ways to use it, so don’t be afraid to buy a big one. I like to bulk up soup with it. It’s an easy way to eat more vegetables even if you don’t like them.

Miso soup with spaghetti squash, tofu, wakame and bok choy in a black bowl — Miso soup with spaghetti squash, tofu, wakame and bok choy

Want to know more about making miso soup? Read Miso Adaptable next.

Lighten Up Old School Comfort Food

Beef Stroganoff with yogurt is easy to make for dinner tonight.

I often don’t like to call dishes by a particular name because if you’ve had that dish before, you might be expecting it to be done in a specific way that is different from how I have prepared it. So we’re going to call this Beef Stroganoff for the sake of simplicity, but in this case I made a lighter version than what is typical.

I liked eating the vegetables separately as a kid

The Beef

You can use whatever kind of beef you like. Just adjust the cooking method to suit the cut. Longer, slow cooking for tougher cuts. Quick cooking for more tender cuts. You could use ground beef or turkey too.

I had some shaved beef here, so I thought I would cook it quickly at the end of the preparation. I think the texture and flavor would have actually been better if I had started with searing the beef, then removed it from the skillet before adding the mushrooms and onions. Live and learn. Cooking without a recipe means experimenting and making adjustments.

The Sauce

To this I added some white wine and let the sauce reduce. I would usually add some beef broth too, but in this case I didn’t. You could add some herbs too. I put some plain yogurt in there once the egg noodles were nearly done. (I don’t want to overheat my probiotics or curdle the yogurt.) Mixed everything together and served. I love simple meals.

Yes, usually this dish is made with sour cream, but I buy yogurt more often and it works fine for me. I often have trouble finishing an entire carton of sour cream unless I turn it into onion dip for chips…in which case I could easily eat the entire carton…and live to regret it. Yogurt is more versatile in my opinion. It can be sweetened up with fruit for a quick snack or plopped onto granola or oatmeal. It works in many savory dishes like this one as well.

The Tool

A spider that you will be happy to find in your kitchen

A spider is perfect for removing the noodles from boiling water to go into the sauce. Tossed some asparagus spears into the boiling water for a minute and retrieved them with aforementioned spider. I love using as few pots as possible…

Here’s how I roll these days: all mixed up. It was even more delicious this way

The Ingredients:

beef
onions
mushrooms
white wine
plain yogurt
asparagus
egg noodles

What else to do with yogurt? Please see No Boring Leftovers for one suggestion.

Focus On Spicy, Almost Sausage

A few simple ingredients provide the easy answer of what to cook for dinner tonight.

Pasta is your answer for what to cook for dinner tonight. It’s easy! The possibilities are endless and you can hardly mess it up…as long as you don’t overcook it. I love it with sausage, but I don’t buy it often because I figure I can imitate its basic flavor in a healthier way if I desire it. Ground meat of any kind and some dried herbs and spices work rather well in my opinion. You can start cooking without a recipe by developing your intuition in the kitchen.

orecchiette and tomatoes with ground turkey on a white plate

Begin with browning your ground meat of choice (I used turkey) in a skillet with some olive oil. Add some minced garlic and some dried spices. In this case, I wanted to mimic the flavor of an Italian sausage, so I chose paprika, fennel, chile flakes, basil and oregano. I was in a spicy mood, so I used a lot of chile pepper flakes, but you could eliminate them and make it a sweet dish altogether. It’s up to you! Taste as you go and see what works. That’s the key to cooking without a recipe.

Season with salt and add some tomatoes. I had part of a can that was opened and a few fresh grape tomatoes, so I tossed the canned ones in to simmer with the meat while the pasta was cooking. Added the fresh ones in near the end just to warm them and add a different texture. Zero waste cooking using what I had on hand.

I told you this was your easy answer for what to cook for dinner tonight. Yes, grated parmesan on top will finish it off. As in Italy, a few quality ingredients combine for a simple meal that is sure to satisfy.

Ready for another fantastic pasta with ground turkey? Please read Tally Your Umami Savvy next to gain more confidence in cooking without a recipe.

Tally Your Umami Savvy

Find your umami inspiration and learn how to eat more vegetables even if you don’t like them.

Pasta fits the bill whenever I’m short on time and inspiration for dinner. I often try to amp up the veggie ratio though, and julienned zucchini works great for that. A julienne peeler makes easy work of creating zucchini noodles, which is a great trick for how to eat more vegetables even when you don’t like them. I salt the zucchini noodles and let them drain in a colander for half an hour or so before adding them to the finished pasta dish. As the zucchini releases some liquid, it softens and slumps up like a noodle. Then it requires no cooking.

Thin spaghetti with julienned zucchini and ground turkey umami sauce

I had some sliced crimini mushrooms that I wanted to use, so that was the jumping off point for this dish. I had some ground turkey and an opened can of tomatoes and I didn’t want to devote the amount of time necessary to make a proper ragu, but I wanted to add some depth to the sauce. So what’s a girl to do?

Add anchovies, of course! If you think not, please keep reading. I am talking about a flavor gem from my treasure chest that does wonderful, unexpected things in very small amounts. So, my ground turkey was super lean here, but I can add tons of flavor without adding fat by using just one or two anchovy fillets. That’s your answer to what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy.

Ingredients I used:

olive oil
mushrooms
minced garlic
ground turkey
canned tomatoes
anchovies
zucchini
pasta
allspice

Is it necessary to run you through the steps to make this fantastic dish? Cooking without a recipe is so simple. I would start with browning either the meat or the mushrooms first. In this case, because I was using such a lean ground turkey, I did that first and then set it aside on a plate while I worked on the other ingredients so as not to toughen it up by overcooking. Then sautéed mushrooms. Next the garlic goes into the skillet and then the anchovies. Yes, one or two fillets from a jar make a huge difference here. I smash them up with a spoon or fork as I incorporate them into the sauce that I’ve started. Then added the tomatoes and I decided on a little allspice too. Again, you can experiment with all kinds of herbs and spices. I would be interested to know what you use as you develop your intuition in the kitchen!

Are you already an anchovy fan? Please read Pantry Pasta Perfection next.

Love Ya Lasagna

You can easily cook lasagna for dinner tonight. It’s a simple meal using a few basic ingredients.

I remember years ago that a friend called as I was preparing lasagna for dinner. When I told him what I was making, he was so impressed because he thought it to be an elaborate meal for a weekday. Hmm…lasagna is a casserole. As long as you have all the ingredients, it’s one of those simple meals you can make anytime.

Everyone loved my mother’s lasagna growing up, so I make it basically the same way…with a couple of minor alterations. These days we can buy no boil noodles, which really streamlines the process. Also, cottage cheese seemed to be the thing in the 70’s/80’s…not exactly sure why. I do prefer ricotta and fresh parmesan cheese…not the powdered stuff you shake out of the can.

Ingredients:

ground beef
marinara sauce
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
lasagna noodles

I usually start with browning some ground beef and adding it to a quality jarred marinara sauce. But in this case, I didn’t have a ready made marinara. Simple enough to make my own. Put some diced tomatoes into the food processor and simmered in a pot with some sauteed garlic, dried basil, oregano and French thyme.

Mix the three cheeses together in a bowl, reserving some grated mozzarella for the top. I gotta tell ya, this has always been a favorite combination. I could eat a bowl full of ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan for dessert. So I make sure to save myself some! BTW, I was a tad short on the mozzarella, so I mixed in a little cheddar. What??? Yes, you can. No one noticed because I buy white cheddar when possible. Use your intuition and use what you have. Simple meals like this are the best when you start cooking without a recipe.

Cheddar?

A few years ago, visitors from Australia asked me why “our” cheese was orange. “What do you mean?” I tried to understand. They had ordered a cheese burger at a restaurant and were shocked when the cheese served them was orange. “Oh, it’s cheddar,” I replied, as if that explained everything. The Aussie raised his eyebrows and suggested, “American cows make orange milk?” Only then did I realize something so obvious that I would have never considered until a foreigner brought it to my attention. Obviously he was right and when I went home, I researched the subject. Indeed, Americans expect their cheddar to be a darker color because during this country’s infancy, adding color was a way to differentiate cheese made in America from that of the Brits. Our cows don’t produce orange milk obviously. So, I don’t have an issue with the added color per se. But buying a white cheese makes it easier to mix it with something else if needed in a pinch. I’m just saying…Think ahead and keep it simple.

Assembling Lasagna

It’s a pretty straight forward process. Put a little sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish so the noodles don’t stick. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down. Then cover with sauce. Then crumble some cheese on top. Another layer of noodles and repeat. You can make it with as many layers as you like and it’s up to you if you like more cheese or more sauce. Michael’s family are all about the sauce, so in this case I made a thin lasagna because I could see that I needed to put the remainder of sauce on top of the final layer before topping with mozzarella and parmesan. Cooking without a recipe means adjusting according to what you have on hand.

Cover and bake for about half an hour. You want the noodles to steam and everything to be hot and bubbly. Then remove the lid and cook an additional 5-10 minutes. Let it rest 15 minutes once removing from the oven. I know it’s difficult to wait because it smells so good, but there’s nothing worse than ruining an otherwise perfect lasagna by slopping it all over the plate because the cheese didn’t get a chance to set up.

Guess what! In addition to being simple and delicious, it’s even better the next day and it also freezes well like most casseroles. Simple meals like this are a win, win!

Find out why I sometimes used a jarred marinara by reading Cheater Sket.

Get Happy As a Clam

Deciding what to cook for dinner tonight is easy once you find inspiration.

Wondering what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy? Get inspired by your travels and ingredients on hand.

Pasta is always welcome in our house and can be made with just about anything you have on hand. So what did I have? I found in the fridge some onion already diced. Half my work done for me. Hooray! I dumped that into a skillet with some olive oil to start cooking while I looked around for what else was easy. I spotted some zucchini in the fridge that was partially used already because I had julienned just the outside parts for a previous meal. The middles remained and I decided they would fill in for squash blossoms that I enjoyed in Italy. Now my vision was coming together.

spaghetti with clams, zucchini and tomatoes on a white plate

The Inspiration

My first dinner in Venice, Italy was pasta with squash blossoms and fresh clams. I didn’t have any fresh clams at home, but I had some canned ones and decided I had found my inspiration. Zucchini isn’t as decorative as its blossoms, but the flavor is similar. Think outside the box when deciding what to cook for dinner tonight. Easy!

a zucchini blossom growing in the garden

Once the diced onion had started to get some color, I added to it:

minced garlic
dried French thyme
dried basil
bay leaf
white wine
the clam juice from the canned clams

As the aroma filled the air and the sauce began to reduce, I started to get excited about dinner. I tossed into the skillet some cherry tomatoes to simmer just until the skins burst. Then I turned off the heat, added the canned clams and covered to await the cooked pasta. Canned clams are already cooked, so you simply want to allow them to heat through. If you cook them further, they will get rubbery. They’re a nice item to keep in your pantry for simple meals.

man and woman on gondola ride in Venice, Italy

I decided to plate this with a leaf of radicchio because it’s beautiful and I like a little bitter component to counterbalance so many sweet elements. I tore mine up and mixed it into the dish. A little goes a long way, so I generally mix it into salads with other greens. It’s a vegetable that keeps longer than a lot of others in your fridge, so you can peel off a leaf or two now and then and leave the rest for later. It makes cooking without a recipe so easy.

How have your travels inspired the meals you create at home? For another of mine, please read Skillful With Shellfish next.