:smack:
I really do need to read a little more closely.
Broccoli tofu - Cube a pound of firm tofu. Cut up a bunch of broccoli. Boil a pound of linguine while you steam the broccoli and tofu.
Mix them together with olive oil, garlic and salt.
I made something pretty good a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the amounts, but you can play around with it. The ingredients were Rigatoni, olive oil, roasted and peeled red and yellow bell peppers, mint, lemon juice, salt pepper and capers. Personally, I could have done without the capers but that’s my personal taste.
It was all tossed together–the non-noodle stuff wasn’t cooked together separately as a sauce.
I liked it with a lot of parmesan.
-FrL-
Something else I did a year or two ago, a bit simpler than the above. Again, I don’t recall exact amounts.
Cook some pasta–I liked this with linguine or fettucini.
Make some bacon, make it quite crisp.
Crunch the bacon into bits, mix it with the pasta.
Pour the bacon grease into the pasta.
Fry some eggs.
Serve the pasta into bowls.
Put a fried egg on top of each bowl.
Sprinkle on a whole lotta parmesan.
Yay.
Always!
If there are three ingredients I always have on had it’s gotta be those - hey, I also own two woks, what does that tell you about my kitchen?
Keep the ideas coming - I suspect the rest of you will pick up some new ideas, too. Hot, cold, vegetarian, carnivore, whatever…!
I know I linked to it earlier, but allrecipes.com rocks for many reasons, my favorite being their ingredient search. Say you have a handful of stuff on hand that you’d like to incorporate into a recipe, but don’t feel like winging it. Put it in their search engine and you’ll find tons of ideas.
Something I’ve been enjoying lately is onions, peas, and cheese over pasta. Basically, saute some thinly sliced onions in olive oil, add frozen peas and heat through. Garlic would be great, too, but I keep forgetting it / am too lazy to deal with it. Salt and pepper to taste, and stir in some grated cheese until it’s a little melty - I like parmesan or feta - then throw over cooked pasta of your choice.
The proportions are whatever you like; I’ve been doing 1/2 - 3/4 of a medium onion and 2/3 - 1 cup of frozen peas, with about an ounce of cheese over one serving of pasta.
My current fave is Pad Thai. I just use a jar of Pad Thai sauce (available in the Asian section of most supermarkets), wide rice noodles (cook according to the box), scramble an egg and and stir fry vegetables you like. I like stir fried chicken or shrimp as well, but meat is optional. Top with chopped peanuts; easy and quick.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/mini-shell-pasta-with-a-creamy-smoked-ba
I made this recipe last Monday > I substituted sour cream for the creme fraiche & used small macaroni elbows instead of the shell pasta. it was really good!
Zuchhini, Yellow Squash, and Eggplant- sliced, egg washed, Breaded (seasoned) and deepfried/shallowfried. Serve a over atop a pile of Fettucini Alfredo with a garnish of a chopped flat leaf parsley and a Green Italian Oregano sprinkled over. Sort of a Mixed Veg Parmesano.
So many Fettucini Alfredo Recipes…
I really like pasta with mushrooms, garlic, basil, olive oil, black pepper, artichokes and Italian sausage. Your husband can even dice up some tomato to toss into his. It’s the shit. Seriously. Leave out the sausage if you can’t afford it.
That’s a great dish - it sounds weird, but it works.
You want even stranger walnut dish, but just as fast and tasty? Try this tuna recipe
1 can tuna
2oz walnuts
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
basil + parsley (fresh if poss)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt + pepper
throw everything except oil into blender and bland until smooth. Then slwly add olive oil. Stir into 1 lb of freshly cooked pasta.
Why not get healthy with some beans? Try some Thunder and lightning
4 or 5 tbsp Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 chili
Oregano and Parsley
2 cans Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans
saute the garlic and chili in olive oil. Throw in the herbs and beans. That’s it. I guess you could add salt.
I was really happy with that link, the provide allergy information! Here I thought most of Thai Kitchen was off limits to me due to my allergies but after reading on their website maybe not - cool!
Cold pasta with peanut butter, soy sauce and just a drip of sesame oil is great on a hot day. Just melt the peanut butter in the microwave, very slowly so it won’t scorch, toss with the pasta and other ingredients, and chill. If you have some chopped peanuts and scallions, even better.
Well, that would work if I wasn’t also allergic to peanuts! I usually substitute almonds or some other tree nut (which I am NOT allergic to - people get confused about these things sometimes) for peanuts in recipes. Wonder if my almond butter would work instead of peanut butter…?
I am sure it would taste great! (I am allergic to pecans, cashews and chestnuts.) Yes, I would definitely try the almond butter. Or cashew butter, if you like that; cashews are often used in Chinese food and would go with the soy sauce and sesame oil.
A word search of this thread revealed that no one recommended bechamel sauce over pasta. All bechamel needs to be prepared is milk, flour, and butter – ordinary staple ingredients. From the “bechamel sauce” Wiki:
IMHO, bechamel over pasta is tasty and filling all by itself. And beyond that, being such a basic sauce, bechamel is super versatile, and you can add in practically anything you’d like to improve, bulk up, or stretch the dish.
It’s Italian (sorry), but how about Paglie e Fieno, or Straw and Hay? Basically, you combine plain fettucine (straw) with spinach fettucine (hay), then make a cream sauce to which you add ham and peas.
I make something I call sauceless pasta that never has any leftovers.
I use angel hair, because that’s why I like. Cook up a few links of Italian sausage until brown and crumbly. Cook your pasta, then toss with a bit of olive oil and good grated asiago or Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
You can experiment with different herbs or pine nuts or whatever you like.
Would adusting the proportions of peanut butter/soy sauce/sesame oil be OK? This sounds awesome to try, but I am a sesame-oil fiend and would like to add more 
Maybe I could toast a little flour in the oven, and throw that in to keep the sauce from turning into an oil slick.