Cooking Out of the Pantry Part II

So, here’s last night’s dinner from the pantry – It was pretty great.

Tonight I decided it was Sunday and Jim was off so we’d have a traditional Sunday Evening Dinner.  Linguine with tomato sauce, crusty bread and a tossed salad.

I used up two boxes of linguine, 4 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato paste, some balsamic vinegar, onions, garlic and olive oil. (As well as got rid of a tube of tomato paste that I obviously never felt really good about because it had expired in July… of last year!)

Make a simple tomato sauce.  You really don’t have to measure any of this.  I used 5 cloves of garlic, 2 large onions, 4 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato paste, a little bit more red pepper flake than usual…

Saute the onion and garlic until glossy, add the red pepper flake and cook for about 2 minutes.

Look at how much pepper flake is in there!

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and stir and cook until combined.  If it’s a little too thin, let it boil for a while to thicken it up.  (I had two kinds of canned tomatoes and it was a little thin, so I boiled it down till it was thick enough.  Then I added the secret ingredient.

Balsamic vinegar.

Pour in a couple of glugs stir and let it cook a bit more.

Mix the prepared pasta into the sauce, stir, plate and serve.

Served with crusty bread and a big salad dressed simply with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the same balsamic vinegar you used in the sauce.  Shred a little locatelli over the pasta and the salad and enjoy!

Here’s what the pantry looks like tonight.

A little bit better.  Tomorrow, I think we might try to get rid of some of those Goya cans on the upper left side. I’ll keep you posted.Similar Posts:

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