45 Minute Midweek Meal (pasta and salad)

This one is definitely going into the cookbook Rei and I are going to write one day. Spicy tomato and sausage pasta. OMG yum! This is a derivative of the Brad from Bon Appetit’s charred tomatoes on toast. We served it with Caesar salad with homemade dressing. Double yum!

For the sauce, we heated some olive oil in a cast iron pan and then added cherry tomatoes, unpeeled garlic, kosher salt, and chile d’arbol. Rei reduced the tomatoes down until they were smooshy and a sauce developed.

On another burner, Rei heated up a saute pan and added a package of ground sausage. Rei broke it up a little bit and cooked it through. My main goal was to get some nice browning on that meat; it worked to an extent, but I have a habit of not waiting long enough and stirring too much, which will be my downfall someday.

Once the sausage and the tomatoes were done, we picked out the chiles, added a few tablespoons of butter, and then mixed in the sausage. We set this aside as the pasta cooked. It was pretty tasty (of course I sneaked a really good bite with a tomato and some pork and the whole shebang!)

Zeke had picked up these angel hair nests and I decided we could use them for dinner. We brought a pot of water to boil, added some salt, and then cooked the nests.

Once cooked, Rei drained the water and put the pasta back into the pot.

I added in the sauce and mixed it all up. Easy peasy.

Oh, I almost forgot. Rei removed the garlic cloves from the pasta sauce, peeled them, and then gave them rough chop. We mixed this into the pasta. You almost forgot when we were cooking, too — you almost put the pasta on the table without the garlic altogether!

Meanwhile, as we were cooking, Adam and Sophie were playing a quick game of Life. I think Sophie won the game. Oh, she definitely kicked Adam’s ass. It was funny. We had a conversation about the dubious health of pink versus blue children — I would rather have a pink child because it could be kinda overheated or really embarrassed or sunburned or something. A blue child would probably be dying of frostbite or something. Thoughts?

I quickly pulled together the salad following a Bon Appetit recipe. I cut up a few anchovies and a clove of garlic and smooshed together with a pinch of salt in this big wooden bowl. I am pretty sure this was a wedding gift about 24 years ago.

I whisked in two egg yolks per the recipe instructions and then squeezed in the juice of one lemon. Was it 2 TBS? Probably not. It could have used a little more lemon juice and less anchovy.

I added some Dijon mustard and whisked all of that together. I don’t know what I was doing at this point, but it sure wasn’t paying attention.

To this I added 2 TBS of olive oil, slowly, whisking the entire time. Then I added 1/2 cup of vegetable oil the same way. While I thought there wasn’t going to be enough dressing, there ended up being plenty for a head of romaine lettuce.

Fortunately we had finely grated Parmesan cheese which I added to the dressing. I added about 3 TBS and then added some freshly ground black pepper. I remember that bit! (I may be a bit too enthusiastic than probably normal that I remember something, but who cares? Not me!)

I chopped up the head of romaine lettuce, tossed the salad and then added some shaved Parmesan and a few anchovies to the top. I know Rei doesn’t love Caesar salad so we will be making this again and providing Rei with another salad option. I will be forever in your debt. Or I could just eat a bowl of frozen peas — an old family classic!

And that was it. 45 minutes from start to finish. This was spicy and tasty and not too heavy and really good as leftovers for lunch today.

Rei? Thoughts? I know you are having fun with your math homework and trying to keep Felix out of the house with the bird he caught and is enjoying for his own playful lunch.

I really enjoyed this pasta, but as Mom mentioned earlier, Caesar salad is not my fav. That’s okay though, because we have been having several less-than-carnivorous meals recently, so it was time we threw Adam a bone (no pun intended) (okay that’s a lie; total pun intended, even though our Caesar salad was boneless. Do y’all eat your salads bone-in or boneless?).

Either way, not a bad meal. Often times, I find these meat, tomato, and pasta dishes to be really heavy and rich, but this was light enough that I really enjoyed it. Adam got a kick out of it when I said something along the lines of, “It might be too spicy for you, Mom, but I really like it.” For context, Mom had said our previous batch of the spicy tomato garlic stuff (that we ate on toasted baguette) was really spicy, and I had snuck an extra chili pepper into this one just for kicks.

Speaking of baguettes, I think you forgot to mention my lovely toasted baguette that we had with this meal! Mom cut them into segments (both lengthwise and the other way), then I brushed them with olive oil, sprinkled a little salt on there because obviously, then broiled those little beasties until they were as toasted and browned as perfect marshmallows. Yum.

Now that I’ve shared my secret recipe for gloriously toasted baguettes, I shall take my leave. I have homework to do (gross), books to read (fuck yeah!), languages to learn (is three too many or should I start a fourth?), and tea to drink (right now I’ve got a lovely mug of black with milk and honey, but it’s getting dangerously emptier as this post continues). And there goes the rest of my tea. Alright people, we are in full crisis mode, everything is going into lockdown until I can secure some more tea.

Until next time, ciao, and have a teajrednflisctions day!

Rei and Terri :D