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Learning To Cook Part II: Throwing Stuff Together

A few days ago we had nothing planned for dinner. In days past, I would have a) gotten take-out or b) ran to the grocery with a recipe in-hand. Since I am now in the save-money mode, these two options aren’t the best. Take-out is too expensive (and not usually healthy) and running to the grocery for just one meal wastes time and gas money.

So instead I dug through the cabinets and found half a box of whole wheat noodles and a large can of tomatoes. Ah ha! Not only that, but I also had some fresh asparagus that I hadn’t cooked yet. Since I am not totally well-versed on making pasta sauce I looked up some recipes on Epicurious and looked at the major ingredients. Thankfully I also have an AeroGarden with basil, I always keep a few heads of garlic around, and I had some left-over wine. Here’s what I came up with: A beautiful-looking pasta sauce with canned tomatoes, crushed basil, garlic, and wine. Topped with some cheese and a few small basil leaves. Add to that a side of asparagus and it looked as if I had planned this meal out! Take a look:

This is the great reward for those of us who know a little bit about cooking: we can save money by putting together ingredients that we have lying around. It is also really helpful to keep in-stock some of the basic cooking ingredients in your well-stocked pantry (see my post on that subject!). 

What Steps Do You Take To Learn To Cook?

The way I learned to cook was in steps:

1) Use recipes for everything (from age 10-19)

2) Watch someone else cook who knows how to whip things up without recipes/from memory (age 20)

3) Use a combination of recipes (80% of the time) and trying to create things on my own (20%) - age 21-29

4) Use a combination of recipes (50% of the time) and trying to create things on my own (50%) - age 30-31

Do I think everyone learns to cook this way? No! I am sure there are plenty of people who taught themselves from books or just from trial and error. I assume they had a lot of errors along the way, though. I am a bit more risk-averse so I was probably slower than most to start trying things out on my own.

Pasta Recipe

In case you were wondering what that pasta recipe is that I came up with, I will try to record the gist of it here:

Boil the whole-wheat pasta according to the box directions. In a pot, put a tbsp. olive oil, heat it up at medium heat, then add two cloves of crushed garlic and saute for about 20-30 seconds. Throw in a can of plum tomatoes (if whole, use a potato masher or something to crush them up in the pot). Simmer for 10 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of white or red wine and a tbsp. of sugar (to sweeten the tomatoes if they are too acidic). Simmer for another 10-20 minutes. Add 2 tbsp or up to 1/4 cup of crushed or chopped basil depending on how much you like basil. Add other herbs if you like those better. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Top the pasta with the sauce and some cheese. Serve with fresh, steamed, or broiled vegetables.

If you are trying to be healthy I would aim to make the veggies the same proportion as the pasta - like 50% veggies and 50% pasta on your plate. Before you take seconds of the pasta eat more veggies. We Americans do not eat enough vegetables!