HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: No, I'm not telling you it's ten minutes until dinner. I mean, it probably isn't. But here's a wonderful delicious dinner you can make in 10 minutes. Maybe 12, if the pasta takes that long.
(Okay, that's not counting boiling the pasta water, but that's easy. )
As my mom always told me: read the recipe all the way through before you make it!
Hank's Super-Fast Delicious Pasta
Ingredients:
Pasta (Any kind works, but penne or rigatoni or farfalle work better than spaghetti, but that's fine too.)
Any vegetable, chopped. But broccoli is fabulous. Or, ooh, broccolini. More on that in a minute.
Three tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 TBS Breadcrumbs (a theme from yesterday's blog)
One clove finely chopped garlic (or the perfectly good kind in a jar or tube) (NOT garlic powder or salt)
A tiny shake of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
Chopped fresh parsley if you have it and love it
Chopped fresh basil if you have it and love it
Instructions:
1. Put on a big pot of water for the pasta.
2. While the water is heating, see what vegetables you have. Broccoli? Perfect. Cut it into little florets. Zucchini? Great. Pop chopped zucc (sprayed with olive oil?) under the broiler til browned--just a few minutes. Same for cauliflower. Frozen peas? Cook them in the nuke for two minutes. Corn? Yum. Grilled corn cut off the cob? Perfection. Put these aside.
If you don't have any veggies? No prob. Go on to step three.
3. Put olive oil, breadcrumbs, garlic and a few flakes of red pepper in a microwaveable dish. Stir. Make sure the olive oil pretty much covers the breadcrumbs. You can adjust the amounts, it won't matter.
4. Check the water--is it ready? If it is, put in the pasta. However much you are making.
5. Cook pasta until one minute from done. (I known this seems weird, but it's hard to hurt it, just guess.)
6. If you are using already cooked vegetables, cook pasta til done.
7. If you are using uncooked broccoli, put the chopped florets into the boiling water with the pasta. If nuked frozen peas, add now. Already grilled veggies? Hold aside.
8. Put the bowl of oil into the nuke, and heat for 30 seconds on high.
9. The pasta and broccoli should be done now.
10. Turn the stove off. Drain and pasta and broccoli, then put it all back into the hot pasta pan.
11. Dump the hot olive oil mixture into the hot drained pasta/broccoli, and quickly mix well. If you are using already cooked vegetables, add those now and stir to get warm.
Add S and P if you like.
12. Serve immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese and parsley and or basil. If you have leftover grilled chicken, add that, too!
HANK: You can see how easy this is, and how it works with almost any veggies. This is a recipe for two-ish, so expand as you will. You can't go wrong with the oil mix--if theres not enough, just nuke a bit more and add. After you've made it a million times, as I have, you'll just know.
SO yummy!
What's YOUR favorite 10-minute recipe?
