Lately, I have been feeling blah. Not sick, not depressed, just...blah. I'm not sure if it's the lousy weather we've been having or just the stress of my husband's occasionally crippling but always constant headaches, or even the knowledge that this will be my first year hosting family for Christmas. My best guess is that is has something to do with my husband's new shifts at work and the fact that five nights a week now I have to fall asleep in an empty apartment and it just feels weird. You spend 2 1/2 years getting used to falling asleep with someone else in bed with you and then all of a sudden you have to try to fall asleep alone again. Oh well.
But lately I just haven't felt like cooking. To be honest, I haven't even felt much like eating. At least not anything that takes more than 5 minutes to prepare.
And my camera? Died the night I went to Morimoto's in Philadelphia for my 2nd wedding anniversary, so all I have are crappy, grainy cell phone pics. But that's a post for another day.
Today's post is about quick and easy, rich and creamy.
Work today was easy and boring, but I still didn't feel like cooking the two chicken thighs I had defrosted. No idea why. So I fell back to a staple that I eat a lot of on nights my husband works: pasta. It's easy to cook, and even easier to toss sauce onto. But tonight I just didn't feel like tomato sauce, especially the part about defrosting a whole bag of it for just myself. So I searched the fridge and was pleased to find a bit of heavy cream left over from some unremembered dish and lo and behold, it's still good til the end of the month!
I know I have a half jar of basil pesto and some Parmesan cheese so I grab those as well as a clove of garlic and a small pat of butter.
When my 1/2 lb. of pasta was almost done cooking (I used mezze regate, which is basically the short bus of rigatoni, little rings of pasta with a ridged exterior) I grabbed the smallest saucepan I could and melted the butter over medium low. I added the clove of garlic, chopped, and sauteed for a minute, being careful not to brown the butter or the garlic. Then I added two small spoonfuls (a silverware teaspoon, not the accurately measured teaspoon kind) of pesto and stirred that til it bubbled. Next I added about a half cup of heavy cream and two spoonfuls of Parmesan cheese. I brought this to a boil and let it bubble away for maybe a minute or two while I drained my pasta thoroughly and put it into a bowl to be tossed with the sauce. I poured all the sauce over the pasta and tossed to coat, threw some of it into a bowl and dug in.
It was creamy, flavorful and delicious, and other than the time it took for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, it was done in 5 minutes! Did it need anything? Maybe a little bit of black pepper, but that's it! A quick and easy meal that was satisfying and fulfilling.
This dish would be delicious as a side dish along with a green salad and a juicy filet mignon.
Again, sorry for no pictures this post but my camera is currently charging and will hopefully be ready for the next post. See you soon!
