Janna: A few weeks ago, one of Joanie and my good friends gave us a challenge. She said she has trouble coming up with meals with things that she has on hand, without having to run to the store for ingredients, and without an actual recipe to follow. She challenged us to look in our cupboards and come up with a meal, just from what we already have. So Caty, here they are, our “straight from the cupboard” meals. Hope you enjoy and get inspired, i know I was inspired and may even do this regularly!
I chose to go the Italian route, A, because EVERYONE has pasta in their cupboards (if you don’t, it’s about $1.00 a pound), and B, Italian food is so easy and simple, and it’s BETTER when you keep it simple, so here it goes. While I was putting this together I kept thinking of other things I could add (but didn’t have on hand) So I will go ahead and list those things as well, so you have a wide range of ingredients to work with, or maybe it’ll inspire you to come up with your own additions!
Ingredients:
1 lb pasta, any kind will do, chunky sauce works better with short, shaped pasta like a shell, corkscrew or bowtie, but I used linguine because that’s what I had on hand.
*You could also add meat to this dish if you wanted, hamburger, italian sausage, chorizo, ground turkey, ground chicken. I’d use about ½ lb of meat in this dish.
½ onion, chopped (you can also add green, red or yellow bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, you could use stewed if you don’t have diced, just give them a rough chop. You can use the diced tomatoes that have herbs already added.
⅓ of a 4oz can of fire roasted diced green chilies. (More if you like it spicier).
2 garlic cloves minced (you can use garlic powder, about ½ tsp or to taste.
½ of a 15 oz can of black olives, roughly chopped
¼-1/2 tsp chili powder
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 Tbs Olive oil
Parmesan or feta cheese
Directions:
In a medium saucepan saute the onions (and other veggies if you’re using them) in the olive oil for a few minutes until tender. If you’re using meat, brown the meat with the onion (and veggies), drain fat out and return to pan. In the meantime, cook pasta according to package directions. I cook 1-2 minutes less for al dente.
Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chilis, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes until hot and steamy. Adjust salt, pepper and green chilies to your liking.
Plate some of your cooked pasta and scoop some of the sauce over it. Shred some fresh mozzarella, parmesan or Feta cheese over top, enjoy!
Makes about 6 servings, serve with a tossed salad and a glass of red wine and enjoy!
Insatiable Sisters 