Day 85 -- Easy Pasta Primavera recipe

Prologue:

What I like about cooking is what I like socks and books-- universality.  Being my tiny size it's frustrating to shop for clothes and shoes or even drive certain cars.  Having an English degree isn't helpful to find jobs and make money in a career.  Being a girl it's scary to walk alone to your car in the middle of the night, ect.  But socks fit everybody of every background, and books don't require a size or skill set or gender either.  When I pick out a green bell pepper an older women who drives a Bentley might have bought one before me, and a young bum druggie might be buying the next one.  

Yes yes, tools and spices are necessary, but cooking can be done by literally everyone.  I rather think that it's the comfort of food and cooking-- despite your flaws or bullshit around you, food makes sense and makes you happy. 

Enough rambling!  Pasta Primavera is a fancy way of saying pasta with vegetables.  It's a really easy way to mix up your boring pasta and make a quick and yummy spin on lunch.

Easy Pasta Primavera

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

Servings: 2-3

Ingredients:

1/3 a box of corkscrew pasta

1/2 of a green bell pepper

1/2 of a tomato

1/2 a can of sliced black olives

1 tsp of butter

1 tbsp olive oil

a healthy shake of grated Parmesan cheese

pinch of salt

*note: you may use more veggies if you want.  Also, don't feel bashful about using only half of things.  You can ziplock the rest and use it in a salad or on a pizza or on its own for another meal.

Directions:

1.) Boil a medium size pot of water.  In the meantime chop up your tomato and green pepper and drain the can of sliced black olives.

.2.) Once the water is boiling, turn down the heat a bit and throw in your corkscrew pasta.  Take out a frying pan and drizzle some olive oil to prevent stickiness.  Add your tomato and green bell pepper pieces to the pan and cook until tender.

3.) Once the pasta's done, drain the pasta water.  Add the cooked veggies, black olives, butter, salt, and a healthy shake of Parmesan cheese.  Stir together.  All done!

Review:

This is what cooking is about.  I had some pasta, some left over veggies, and a newly-found can of olives and presto, lunch was decided.  It's nothing exceedingly special and probably not the healthiest after the cheese and butter, but you know what, I snuck in some healthy veggies into my otherwise boring pasta and it not only looked fancy but tasted like a satisfying $7 meal I could get at shop and made for only about $1.50 a serving.