It looks like it’s one of those days again. You know…when you are simply famished, but there is nothing in your kitchen that  you want to eat, you haven’t had time to go to the store, and you can’t think of what you would cook even if you had the ingredients? Happens to me from time to time, and now is one of those times. I am hungry. I don’t know what I want to eat. I looked in the pantry and the refrigerator at least ten times in the last hour, but haven’t seen anything I want. Why do I think I’ll find something I didn’t see the last time I looked?

I should probably just grab a few things and play chef. I like to watch cooking shows. A few shows I watch had episodes where the theme was creating a meal out of ingredients that you probably always have in your fridge and pantry.  On “Chopped,” a cooking competition show, the contestants are given a basket of random and sometimes unusual ingredients to use to cook a specific course. I have to say that I am pretty good myself at throwing together ingredients, without a recipe, to create a yummy dish. And of course there’s always pasta.

Pasta is one of my go-to foods. I usually have at least one box in the cabinet, as I assume most people do. I always have olive oil and there is almost always some garlic too. That’s all you really need to easily whip up a quick and tasty dinner. I cook the pasta in salted water and while I’m waiting for it I heat up some olive oil in a separate pan, add a few cloves of crushed garlic, and let it cook for about a minute. If there is some tomato sauce, that goes in; if I am not too lazy, maybe some chopped fresh tomatoes. I’ll add a splash of wine if there is an open bottle around, and then some herbs and black pepper. That’s all there is to it! That simmers for a few minutes and then you mix it in with the drained pasta. That’s the basic “recipe,” but you can play around with it, adding different vegetables or herbs, or any other ingredients you think would work. I can tell you that it smells sooooo good  while it’s cooking, and it always hits the spot when I’m in one of my lazy but hungry moods. Okay, now I am really hungry, but I think I know what I want. I am signing off so I can go cook some pasta. I hope you’ll try this one of these days because it is so easy and so delicious!