Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—Unexpectedly?

Here’s a Simple Dish You Can Prepare in a Snap

By Nissa Simon

ne of life’s joys is having old friends drop in unexpectedly.  (Yes, I really do mean that.  In these troubling times, old friends serve as an anchor to a steadier past. They are to be treasured and nurtured.)  Whether your friends are on their way to visit far-flung relatives or they just found themselves in your neighborhood after a day of shopping, it’s nice to be able to say, “Oh, do stay for supper!”  And it’s even nicer to know that you can put a satisfying meal on the table with little fuss and bother. 

This main dish can be ready in well under an hour.  It requires that you have some back-up supplies in your freezer and pantry, but once you have a well-stocked larder, it's a snap.  Complete the meal with bread, a salad and a vegetable, if you have one on hand. Offer fresh fruit for dessert and enjoy catching up on each other’s news.

Roast Peppers on Pasta

This tasty dish serves four and is a breeze to prepare if you have a bag of roasted sweet red and green peppers in your freezer.  I don’t bother roasting them myself. Instead, I buy commercially  prepared roasted peppers. Look for those that have been cut into chunks rather than strips.

Ingredients & Preparation

Pasta

1 large onion

Olive oil

Frozen red or green roasted peppers

1 or 2 garlic gloves

Freshly ground black pepper

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

            Put a pot of water on to boil and cook enough pasta (whatever you have on hand) for four people.  While the pasta is cooking, chop one large onion into small dice and sauté it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until gently browned.  Toss in 10 to 12 chunks of frozen pepper and cook over medium low heat until the peppers are heated through and the mixture starts to caramelize.  Add a clove or two of chopped garlic (don’t put the garlic in before this point or it will burn and taste bitter), and cook for a couple of minutes more. 

            Drain the pasta, saving a couple of spoons full of the cooking water, and pour it into a serving bowl rinsed in hot water.  Mix in the reserved cooking water and toss with the roast pepper mixture, salt and freshly ground black pepper, and some shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.    

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An avid cook, Nissa Simon writes frequently on health-related topics for various magazines. She was the Health Editor for Reader’s Digest’s New Choices for more than 10 years and now writes the “Health = Wealth” column in MAKING BREAD.

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Two more recipes you can prepare in a snap appear in the “Cheap ‘N’ Easy Eats” column of the November/December issue of MAKING BREAD. Click here to try a 16-day trial subscription to MAKING BREAD, and get access to all of the great money-saving articles and recipes we’ve published

in previous issues. Enjoy!