Sarah’s out on the town this week in London and I’m scrounging around for foody things at night — trying to resist the temptation to try out the new restaurant on our street.
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Red onions
- Herbs de Provence (or I suppose you could get your own mixture of parsely, sage, rosemary, thyme, simon and garfunkel)
- Pasta
- Hard cheese (I used parm; I’m sure Romano or Grana Padano would be fine)
The story:
After work yesterday I bought some red onions, knowing I might not have the chance again for a while, and wondered what I was going to do with them. There was a pasta sale at Kaufland recently, and we’ve got oodles of noodles lying around the apartment (not kidding, but I’ll put them away soon, I promise).
I threw some olive oil in the bottom of a skillet — not quite enough to cover the bottom — over low heat (3 out of 9 on our stove), and tossed in 2 small (think Clementine-sized) sliced red onions and a bunch of garlic coarsely chopped into slivers once it got hot. I wasn’t quite sure what else would be needed. Jul suggested fresh basil or oregano. I thought those sounded great, but don’t have any fresh basil and oddly couldn’t find the oregano. I did however, in my search, stumble upon an old jar of Herbs de Provence. Dumping on about a tablespoon (I guess) of the Herbs made it smell awesome.
Meanwhile I got a pot of water going for my pasta. I used the Eliche cut (single helix scaly looking things), which worked well with the strands of red onion. I cooked the onions and garlic and herbs until the pasta was done — maybe a little bit longer, then combined them in the pasta pan (heat off, but still on the stove) and I grated a big hunk of parmesan into it and mixed it up well. Pretty good improvisation, if I may say so, considering I normally just cut up what Sarah tells me to.
Macaroni and oil — variations on a theme. Can’t go wrong with the basic components. Sounds good for a lonely supper!
Put the pasta away in the cupboard in case someone stops by. We had macaroni in the living room in a big box for two months so I could grab a few boxes at a time and take them to the food pantry at school. The remainders finally went to the basement. I’ve been carrying too much other junk to school. The birthday party was a good excuse to get the pasta out of the living room. The economy makes pasta sound good, makes people feel safe when they have it to eat.
I still love Simon and Garfunkel. They were on PBS last week. Paul sounds good, Art sounds weak. Made me feel old…
Love,
Mom
Great improv.
I’m impressed.