Get Cooking_ 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen - Mollie Katzen [45]
2. Put a large pot of cold water to boil over high heat, and add a tablespoon of salt. Place a large colander in the sink. When the water boils, add the pasta, keeping the heat high. Cook for the amount of time recommended on the package, tasting the pasta toward the end of the suggested time to be sure it is not getting overcooked. When it is just tender enough to bite into comfortably but not yet mushy, dump the water-plus-pasta into the colander. Shake to mostly drain (it’s okay to leave some water clinging), and transfer the pasta to the bowl of sauce.
3. Use a fork or tongs to gently mix the noodles into the sauce, using a lifting motion as you turn the bowl. Serve right away, topped with a scattering of red pepper flakes.
GET CREATIVE
If you like a little heat, add some chile oil to the sauce (a few drops at a time, tasting after each addition) after you add the soy sauce.
For a little more complex flavor, add a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil to the sauce.
Add some minced cilantro to the sauce and/or a few whole cilantro leaves to decorate the top. (Use as much as you like. I tend to throw in a ton!)
Stir in some thinly sliced scallion greens, or sprinkle them on top as a garnish.
Garnish with some chopped peanuts.
Toss in a cup of warm chopped cooked broccoli, carrots, cabbage, summer squash, mushrooms, or cauliflower along with the pasta.
Mix in (or sprinkle on) a cup of shredded or sliced cooked chicken (Chapter 6: Chicken, Fish, and Meat and 156), diced firm tofu, or scrambled eggs.
Make this vegan by using eggless pasta.
vegetarian entrées.
ACORN SQUASH STUFFED WITH APPLE-ALMOND-CHERRY BASMATI PILAF
VEGETARIAN CHILI WITH HOMEMADE CORNBREAD
MUSHROOM-ZUCCHINI RAGOUT OVER CREAMY POLENTA
ARTICHOKE, GOAT CHEESE, TOMATO, AND RED ONION FOCACCIA
BROCCOLI–CHEDDAR CHEESE CALZONES
GREEN PEA AND FETA QUICHE
MUSHROOM POPOVER PIE
BAKED STUFFED POTATOES
GREEK-STYLE STUFFED EGGPLANT
CHICKPEA AND MANGO CURRY
THAI GREEN CURRY WITH COCONUT MILK, VEGETABLES, AND TOFU
VEGETABLE-TOFU STIR-FRY WITH ORANGE-GINGER GLAZE
The Greening of Dinner
I’ve spent an entire career creating and writing vegetarian recipes, and my “off-duty” cooking is very heavily (and happily) skewed this way as well. I do eat bits of meat from time to time, but I pretty much always think like a vegetarian, and “plant cuisine” is my Forever culinary home base. This is the food that I love and that makes me feel best, not only in body and soul, but creatively, in the garden and kitchen. And because I want to share this kind of cooking with everyone, and not further the misperception (to people who might love their burgers as well as their broccoli) that vegetarian cuisine is some kind of exclusive club, I prefer to call it “garden-and-orchard-based eating,” and thus (hopefully) fling the door to this paradise wide open. “Garden-and-orchard-based eating” is a mouthful, I know, and it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue (which is why it’s not the title of this chapter). But with high hopes that this approach to food will become a literal mouthful—and a positive factor in your lives—here are the recipes I have created just for you, to get you launched into the universe of green-leafy-delicious.
This chapter, therefore, is not just for you official “Big V” vegetarians. It’s also for meat lovers who might want some really tasty, easy options to try out a few nights a week as a break from burgers and chicken. I think you’ll discover that eating a little less meat, loving it when you do eat it, and doing good for the planet (since plant-based choices are far less damaging to the environment) is a win-win-win.
These recipes are designed to give you a basic repertoire of meatless entrées, based on favorite ideas from my decades of loving to cook this way. Along with some of the pastas in the pasta chapter (or the suggested meatless versions