Why I was thinking about Half Homemade tonight

[commodorified]

So I needed a really fast, everyone-is-tired-and-starving kind of supper tonight.

I made pasta with sauce, or, more accurately, Classico and I made pasta with sauce.

There are a lot of things I buy intending to adulterate them extensively before serving. Pasta sauce is a big one.

Making red sauce from scratch is possibly worth it if you have a huge tomato patch or a bushel from the market, or if you're an absolute wizard at Italian spicing, or if your honour is involved, but I suspect most people start a step or two along (and when they DO make sauce from scratch, make some to freeze and adulterate later).

Sometimes I start with plain tinned diced tomatoes.
More often, I start with spiced tinned diced tomatoes.
Mostly, I start with a jar of pasta sauce.

Tonight I started with a bottle of Classico Vodka and I:

1) Browned 2 mild Italian sausages and a chicken breast in a deepish frying pan,

2) Dumped the sauce over them,

3) Added 2 Tablespoons of diced dehydrated garlic, a heaping Tablespoon of Mexican oregano, sniffed it a bit, added a good pinch of adobo pepper and a good pinch of chipotle, tasted it, and added a good pinch of black pepper,

4) Added in about a cup of frozen chopped spinach,

5) Let it simmer while the noodles cooked, and served it with grated parmesan on top, garlic bread (split baguette, buttered and with more dehydrated garlic sprinkled on, then 15 minutes in a 350 F oven) on the side, and chopped tomato and cucumber salad heavily sprinkled with Penzey's Mural of Flavour.

It took about 30 minutes all in, and was good.

Comments

[krait]

I am addicted to 'doctoring' those seasoned rice packages from the grocery store brand. Put "Cajun rice" packet contents in pot, add extra Cajun seasoning (or something vaguely similar; Penzey's Northwoods or just some black pepper + cayenne pepper + oregano are common for me, too). Then follow the packet directions, and ~ ten minutes before it's done throw in whatever frozen vegetables you have and any fresh ones that need to get out of the fridge. (If you have any andouille, smoked sausage, or other meat, you can add that, too.)

Voila: one-pot cooking and one-bowl dining, virtually fat free (I do not add the recommended oil). Bonus: adding the veggies really stretches the yield, so instead of three meals you have five or six. (Meals = meals for one; I'm single and it shows.) Plus it's freezable if you get bored.