Upgrade Pasta

[swan_tower]

I occasionally post here about my adventures in cooking -- which are, on a 1-10 scale of impressiveness, probably aspiring to a 2, but hey, for me that's an improvement. The most recent adventure involves what we have dubbed Upgrade Pasta.

Yesterday my sister and I were discussing possibilities for dinner, and she mentioned that in the days when she lived alone in a San Francisco apartment the size of half a shoebox, she would sometimes fry up some kielbasa and dump it over pasta with some spinach. And to my surprise, the thought "huh, that sounds fairly tasty" was followed immediately by "I wonder if I could upgrade it?"

The answer is that yes, I could. With some sauteed onions and some salt and some garlic and tossing the spinach in at the end to wilt it a bit. And what makes me proud enough to post about this is, I assembled the whole thing purely on the knowledge I've accumulated over the last few years about what order to do things in and for how long and at what heat. There's nothing earth-shattering about the result . . . but having that knowledge and the confidence in it? That's a landmark for me. I have other recipes that I've modified in various ways (and which have acquired interesting names along the way: our meal planning sometimes lists dishes like The Transitive Property of Marjoram or Forgotten Pasta or Lorem Ipsum Salad), but this is the first time there really hasn't been a recipe, just an understanding of basic principles. And the result was not only edible, but moderately tasty.

So, go me?

Comments

[alexseanchai]

oh that sounds delicious!

[sovay]

So, go me?

Definitely, go you!

Also, I would like descriptions of The Transitive Property of Marjoram and Lorem Ipsum Salad.

[swan_tower]

The Transitive Property of Marjoram: "This side dish of onions and bell peppers would be tasty over rice if you added some protein. Hmmm -- it has marjoram in it, and there's that stew I make that has marjoram in it, which also has kielbasa. By the transitive property of marjoram, that means I could put kielbasa into the side dish, right?"

Lorem Ipsum Salad: "I was thinking of making that thing with the brown rice and chicken and spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and apple and bacon and pine nuts and vinaigrette dressing. Man, that's unwieldy to say." My friend Wendy: "Lorem ipsum salad?"

(Actual recipes can be provided if desired.)

[sovay]

(Actual recipes can be provided if desired.)

Neither of these are things our household could eat without significant alteration, but the names make perfect sense! I especially like The Transitive Property of Marjoram.

[swan_tower]

Neither of these are things our household could eat without significant alteration

I suspected that would be the case, but figured I'd offer for anybody who might be curious.

[sovay]

I suspected that would be the case, but figured I'd offer for anybody who might be curious.

I appreciate it anyway.

[pameladean]

That really is a step. Some people never take it. Which is fine -- it's not like the world is in ANY WAY short of recipes -- but it's a useful skill.

I love the titles of the dishes, especially The Transitive Property of Marjoram.

P.

[swan_tower]

That one got its own blog post, back in the day. :-) The name stuck.

[mrissa]

Yes, "I can mess with that" is a lovely stage in cooking, go you.

This is why I have to think about my recipes for my newsletter every month, because a lot of what I make doesn't strike me as a recipe, it's just a thing I did. Like tonight, I am likely going to do some walleye en papillote with a bunch of stuff, and...there it will be, stuff with walleye, hooray. Making it into a recipe takes concentration, because mostly it's just improvisation.

[swan_tower]

I am 99% mostly not to the "improvisation" level of skill yet. But a month ago I probably would have said I was 100% not there yet, so.

(Okay, make that 98% and 99%. Previous improvisations have been on the level of "I bet I could dump some peas into this.")

[carbonel]

The upgrade pasta sounds tasty, and I'm very interested in the thoughts that lead to your own cooking inventions.

I have in my fridge what used to be six ounces of shrimp before it was sauteed (a previous recipe called for ten ounces, and I bought a pound bag of raw shrimp), and have decided that that plus white sauce plus garlic plus Parmesan should make something tasty to go over linguine.

The real question is whether I should make enough for two servings, which would be a little skimpy on the shrimp, or one serving and be very generous on the shrimp. Or whether there something I already have in the house that I could add to it to stretch things. I'm dubious that canned crab or canned clam (both of which I have) would be a win.

And this plan might sound awfully basic, but it is a synthesis of things that I have learned from making meals from Hello Fresh bags of ingredients plus instructions.

Of course, I haven't made it yet, so it could all go awry.

[swan_tower]

I'm starting to get slightly better at using up tail ends of things by saying "I bet I could add this into that other thing I make." But it's still very much a work in progress.

How did things go with your shrimp?

[carbonel]

The shrimp turned out well! I made a white sauce from flour and butter and Parmesan cheese and fresh garlic -- the latter two of which I've started keeping in the house as staples in the last few months -- and got two meals out of it. The second day, I added a bit of half & half to the leftovers to thin out the sauce, because it had thickened overnight.

The next time I make a white sauce, I think I might try using corn starch instead, because I noticed there's a recipe on the back of the package. (I bought corn starch because I need it for the strawberry rhubarb crumble I want to make, but then I discovered that I had an ancient box at the back of the cupboard, and the Internet tells me corn starch doesn't age out, unlike so many other things. So now I have a plethora of corn starch.)

[tiger_spot]

Yes, operating from basic principles is an excellent stage of cooking!

It's like I don't consider a recipe truly my own until I can make it without measuring anything.

[swan_tower]

Heh -- I'm approaching that point with some things! I definitely measure a lot less than I used to; it's now "pour in some olive oil" or "ehhhh, that looks like enough salt" rather than precision work.