Leftover meal - Pasta

Please imagine Don Lafontaine's voice here: 

 

In a world :

...where your dream was to buy a new home...But the previous owners left crud in the refrigerator.  All of your groceries are wrapped in bags, safe from mysterious crumbs and stains.  Most of your pots and pans are buried under books and toys in the garage.

 

...which box is it??!! 

It is dinnertime!

 

In your  desperation you have located one pan and one pot.  You have located the runty stubs of several type ingredients.  You WILL survive!  You WILL make dinner!

 

 

I found:

half a box of cherry tomatoes

some pesto from the back of the freezer, frozen after a bounty of last summer's basil then forgotten

The end of a ball of mozzarella

half of an onion

half a box of pasta

some olive oil

and my new housewarming gift of a basil plant

 



 

 

I fried the tomatoes in olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) for a little while (4 mins) then tossed in the onion and stirred until golden and a little sloppy.  (This is about as precise as I get.)

 

 

I boiled my pasta for two minutes less than the package called for.  Save about 1/2 cup of the starchy water to deglaze the pan and make the sauce stick to the noodles. 

 

 

 

Thaw some pesto and  melt it into onions and tomatoes.  Then add the noodles to the glossy sauce.  You should finish the cooking time for the noodles at this point.  The noodles will draw some of the sauce into them.

 

I then trimmed my housewarming gift - you should use basil to taste or about 1/4 cup.

 

 

I cubed the leftover mozzarella.

I have dinner and used up disconnected leftovers!  Success!  My husband even requested that I make a second batch, this time with garlic.  I agreed...but now I need to find it.

 

-Daisy