What to cook when you want to slam food into your face in under 20 minutes.

Posted by Michael on Mar 21, 2010 in Recipes | 2 comments

For most of us in modern life, this happens several times a week.

You’re hungry, haven’t prepared anything but want to eat right away.

Sound familiar?  It’s why fast food and frozen food companies make zillions of dollars.   But since eating fast food or frozen food several times a week will eventually kill you, you really need to come up with some better options.

So here’s one for starters.   This pasta dish contains just four ingredients (okay, six if you count the water and salt for the pasta) and is ready in just a hair longer than it takes to boil the pasta.   It’s filling, absolutely delicious, and contains none of the saturated fat, chemicals and excessive salt of virtually any fast food or frozen food source.   It’s made with ingredients you almost assuredly have on hand too.  Get a wedge of parmesan or romano cheese the next time you’re in a grocery store if you don’t have one now.  It seems more expensive than the pre-grated varieties but you’ll find it actually goes a long way and the flavour is world’s better than the processed stuff anyway, so it’s really like comparing apples to oranges.  Get the good stuff and don’t look back.

This is a dish that begs for variation so have at it.  Toss in chopped tomato, olives, zucchini, pancetta or prosciutto, Italian parsley, chilies, artichoke, leek, broccoli, you name it.

Friggin’ Fast Pasta

Pasta for one, any kind

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Several big grinds of fresh cracked black pepper

Fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese

Generously salt a large pot of water (at least three litres) with a salt (about a tablespoon or two) and bring to the boil.  Drop in your pasta and give it a stir.  After about six minutes, start to heat a fry pan over medium heat.   Add a tablespoon of the extra virgin olive oil to the pan and grind in pepper to taste.   Drain the pasta and add it to the fry pan, giving it a toss.  Grate on some parmesan cheese and toss well.  Grate and toss two or three more times before transferring the pasta to a plate.   Top with more cheese and drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil.  Drive that into your face and be exceedingly pleased it’s not a drive thru burger and fries.