Bread, Wine, Salt

I dropped a bunch of cookbooks in front of my husband this weekend and told him to pick meals for the week. He filled out a weeks worth of dinners with references so I could find the recipe.  It was very helpful.  What he didn't do was actually read the recipes.  Once of his choices was spaghetti with plum tomatoes and basil.  I didn't follow the recipe because I'm an inherently lazy cook and because I believe I am capable of throwing together a fresh tomato sauce.  You are also capable of creating such a lovely thing. So I'm not going to give a recipe, but I will walk you through the process. Start with good tomatoes. There's no point in trying this with mediocre tomatoes.  Buy enough to feed however many people you're going to feed.  Set a pot of water in the stove to boil. Coarsely chop the tomatoes, place in a colander and sprinkle with a small amount of salt.  Allow to drain.  When the water comes to a boil, drop spaghetti, ...

Probably not the Martha you're thinking of, unless you also have a young child who loves the show " Martha Speaks " on PBS. Bird had been begging for alphabet soup. So I picked up some alphabet pasta and whipped up some soup.  The soup was popular enough that I had to make it again almost as soon as the first batch was gone.  Even the grown-ups liked it.  It might not make your dog talk, but it does make a nice lunch. 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil 1 medium onion 2 cloves garlic 1 28-oz can tomato puree 4 cups water 1 cup alphabet pasta (or other small pasta shape) salt and pepper to taste juice of 1 lemon Add oil to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Finely dice onion and add it to the pot, stirring to coat onion with oil. While the onion cooks, peel and mince the garlic.  Add garlic to pot and stir again.  Allow onion and garlic to cook together for about 5 minutes until onion is translucent. Add tomato puree and heat to a bare simmer. ...

Okay, so there's no recipe here. It's just boiling and slicing so we can get to the playground. The mini-ravioli are from Trader Joe's and are very popular around here. As you can see, the toddler couldn't even wait for me to take a picture before he snatched a sample. They cook in 15 minutes. I just put the frozen peas in the colander and drain the cooked ravioli over them. This warms the peas and helps cool off the ravioli so it's ready to eat or cover for transport. Sides today were a clementine and half an apple. The container is a Ziploc I found at Target. Check out the other bentos at What's for Lunch Wednesday.

One of the obligatory foodie magazine articles (they're a on three year cycle) decries the horror of pasta salad and proceeds to spend 3 pages deconstructing the pasta salad so that they can rebuild it into a stronger, better, faster bionic pasta salad that will amaze your friends and change your mind about pasta salad forever, provided, of course, that you follow their recipe exactly. Quick, dash to the store for feta and endive! Some times you plan your potluck contribution carefully and you have time to buy smoked truffle oil and champagne vinegar. Sometimes you forget about the potluck until that afternoon and you have to wing it. The key to winging it is having a pantry with things in it that you bought because you never know when you might have to wing it. For this salad it was a can of white beans, a can of black beans and a box of pretty colored pasta shells. I am forever buying dried pasta that has an interesting shape or color. It's a habit I recommend....