quick and easy meals for 1 or 2

Sauté

I’m going to go on and on about sautéing veggies with or without pasta added. We’ve done this so many different ways depending on what we have in the fridge at any time... Of course it all starts with the basic aglio e olio which is just pasta cooked up and garlic mashed and chopped up. Some olive oil in a frying pan, heat it up and add the garlic, salt and pepper. I always throw a little parsley in for color and flavor. Put in the pasta and away you go.

That’s the basic beginning of so many quick and easy meals you can make that are great and sooo easy to do.

Let’s go the next step to pasta primavera. Same idea just more ingredients. The basic veggies are peppers (red and/or green), onions and garlic. You might want to give a thought to color ie. Some red peppers, some green peppers, maybe some string beans, broccoli, carrots or some seeded tomatoes you can put in just about any veggie in the frying pan. Just remember, the harder the raw veggie the longer it needs to cook in the oil in the frying pan. When I use carrots I put them in first on med/low heat ‘til they start to get soft then the broccoli ‘til it softens up a little then the peppers, onions, zucchini, string beans, eggplant, etc. The last stuff you want to put in is the garlic, tomatoes and basil. I always squeeze a half of a lemon or lime on the veggies just before serving.

When the pasta is still a little chewy and not quite done strain it and put it in the pan at the same time as the garlic, etc. toss it all for about 2 minutes and it’s ready to serve. Oh yeh, a splash of white wine at garlic time is good too.

Now, what if we want a little fish or meat with this to make it a real good 1 plate (or bowl) Italian meal. When I use chicken I usually get a rotisserie chicken and just pull pieces off and put it in when I put in the garlic etc. If I use shrimp I, of course, peel and de-vein them before anything else, put them in some ice water with a few cubes and a squeezed lemon or lime. Then squeeze the extra water off and add them when I add the peppers etc. I’ve used mussels and or clams (it’s great). I put them in about broccoli time. If any of them don’t open throw those away. I’ve seen and used frozen cooked mussels. Found them in the frozen packaged fish section. All you have to do is warm them up so I added them when I added the garlic etc.

We used to eat in a real good Italian restaurant back up north that served traditional 5 course Italian meals. One of the courses was just sautéed veggies. (Peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant and garlic) It was good, but not as good as the above. Of course there was always real good crusty Italian bread and some Chianti.