The New Classic

Last Monday night my husband and I did a little impromptu cooking. We don't often cook, let alone whip up something at the last minute, so it was an unusual albeit lovely experience. We were hungry and feeling uninspired by seamless, so we did the practical, cost-saving, thing: raid our cupboards for edible food that isn't dessert, and make a meal of it.

We happened to have a box of fusilli, some leftover tomato sauce and a jar of artichokes (one of my go-to salad ingredients) as well as some frozen spinach probably meant for a lasagna I had intended to make years ago. So voila, we put together pasta with tomato and artichoke sauce, with a side of spinach. This may sound incredibly rudimentary, but cooking for us (when it happens) usually entails lots of strategizing, a ton of prep work and way too much time and money spent at our overcrowded and overpriced local grocer. It's a whole to-do and it's expensive and stressful. Our easy peasy basic meal last Monday was somewhat of a revelation for me. Cooking can be simple and still satisfying.

Plus, now I'm seeing "our recipe" everywhere! When digging through the April 2007 Gourmet magazine for last Thursday's TBT post, I found this Fettuccine with Artichokes recipe. And last week A Cup of Jo posted a link to this Real Simple Linguine with Artichokes and Leeks recipe in a Quick Dinners To Make At Home feature.

I think my hubby and I stumbled upon a pasta classic, and now I'm determined to add it to our meal repertoire.

[Gourmet, April 2007]