#i just didn't see it until after getting covered in zucchini juice

[chaoticbooklesbian]

I am covered in zucchini juice. I don't even like zucchini.

[4ever-september]

My default is what I like to call The Anything Pasta, which takes me anywhere from 20-30 min most days. This pasta apparently defined me as the Feed the Drunks Mom Friend in college, since I didn't particularly like getting wasted but wanted to feel included when my roommates brought drink friends home. Anything Pasta is comprised of the following ingredients:

Any shape of pasta (a 1 lb box is typically 4 servings, but you do you)

Any cooking fat (I typically use olive but if you want to use lard hell yeah)

Salt

Any vegetable(s) and/or meat. Just kind of gauge the amount by comparing it to how much pasta you have. I typically do like a whole large vegetable and/or half a pound of meat for 2 people. Currently my Anything Pastas are mostly zucchini because holy shit it sure is the end of squash season.

Any spices. Highly recommend fresh garlic, also typically use black pepper, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, etc., but go wild if you want.

Any sauce ingredient(s). Simplest pantry ingredient is tomato paste, but you can also use pesto, fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, straight butter, slightly liquidy dairy like ricotta or creme fraiche or sour cream.

(optional) Finishing fat like butter or olive oil - to help emulsion of the sauce at the end if you didn't have enough fat added during the cooking process. And because delicious.

Steps:

Set pot or pan of salted water to boil for the pasta (just make sure you have enough water to cover the amount of pasta you want to cook). I tend to do long skinny pasta in a pan these days to save on water boiling time, and shapes in a pot.

If you have meat (ground is the fastest but chunks are fine if you feeling fancy), saute it in a pan first until cooked, or until brown if you have time and like flavor. Take it out of the pan with the juices if you also have veg.

If you have veg, wash everything then cut them up into bite size pieces (half moons for long skinny veg, slices for things like peppers and onions, dices if you don't like large pieces)

If you have multiple types of veg, you should add them in order of how long it takes to cook - hard veg like carrots take a while and should go in first. Use a little oil in a pan on med-high and stir fry up hard veg with a dash of salt until almost cooked (you can poke through it with a fork but there's still a little resistance). This can take up anywhere from like 3-6 min.

After the hard veg are a little cooked, add in garlic and spices until it smells nice, usually around 30 sec.

Then add in any soft veg, typically leafy stuff, like kale or spinach, until wilted. Salt this too.

Add your sauce ingredient(s) here. The more liquidy a tomato ingredient is the more time it'll need to cook down to a saucy consistency. If it's too dry (like tomato paste) just add some water until it looks like sauce. Just do it to your liking! Dairy and pesto are quick, just mix until well distributed through the veg.

Concurrently, once the water is boiling, cook the pasta that you want to al dente (1-2 min before full cook according to the package) - if you bite a piece it should have a little chewy bit in the middle

Drain your pasta and KEEP SOME OF THE PASTA WATER. I just take like a 1 cup measuring cup and scoop some of the water out before draining.

Once your veg is cooked per step 4, lower the heat to like med-low and dump your pasta into the same pan along with a dash of the pasta water and any meat you might have cooked first. (Optional: Add a tab of butter or a dash of olive oil for extra yum and emulsion.) Use only a small amount of the pasta water first if you're not too sure on how much to use - if it's too dry and doesn't look like a sauce you can always add more.

Mix everything around vigorously until everything seems well incorporated.

Taste and salt and pepper as you see fit. Serve! Eat!

To give an example of this with the Damned Zucchini, this is what I do (timings dependent on your stove and just poking and smelling things to see if they're cooked):

Set water to boil in a pan, and cook up like half a pound of fettuccine to al dente. Drain over the sink but keep like a cup of the hot pasta water.

Mince up like 4 cloves of garlic because garlic is measured with love. Cut the ends off a big honking zucchini because that's all the farmers market ever gives me. Cut in half long ways then slice into like 1/4" thick slices.

Use another pan or more probably my wok and stir fry the damn zucchini in some olive oil until a little brown and cooked through. You'll want to avoid moving it around too much if you want the brown bits but honestly it doesn't matter too much. Once a little brown just mix everything around until it's all cooked through (kind of translucent). A dash of salt and usually black pepper here.

Add minced garlic and whatever herbs and spices I have on hand. Probably dried basil and oregano. I also measure this with love.

Add some tomato paste and fry, usually about a couple tablespoons, until I can mix it all around and all the veg is a little red. Then I add water from the cooking pasta a spoonful at a time until it's a little saucy in there. Usually this gets done before the pasta so I turn off the burner.

Once the pasta is done cooking I usually get lazy and just use like a pair of tongs to just transport the pasta directly from its pan to the zucchini pan. The water that comes with is usually enough for some sauciness to happen. Turn burner here to med-low.

Add a tab of butter for goodness, then mix until the butter is melted and everything is all mixed together. Taste a piece of zucchini and add salt until it tastes good. Few grinds of pepper are always good.

Serve. Sometimes add grated parm if I'm feeling frisky and feel like letting the cat lick the back of the microplane. Sometimes add torn up basil if the herb garden is going crazy.

Tl;dr: no time got veg? Make pasta. I always keep dry pasta and tomato paste in stock; generic is just fine.

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner