Still feeling pretty ordinary, so for dinner I ended up having Pesto Penne. Super simple, easy and modifiable.
Penne Pasta (or any other short pasta like shells or spirals)
Pesto Sauce
Cream (or sour cream)
boil enough salted water to easily cover the pasta
add the pasta
Cook the pasta for 8 minutes. Adjust as you feel for your tastes, but I like mine a touch over al dente, but not as soft as the packet instructions (~10 minutes) usually make it. For a single serve this is about 3 handfuls of pasta.
In a bowl mix 1 part pesto with 2 parts cream until well combined. For a single serve, this is about 1 heaped teaspoon pesto and the requisite cream.
after mixing in some water
When the pasta is cooked, save a 1/4 cup of the liquid and drain well. Mix some of the saved liquid with the pesto mixture until it's the consistency you want.
Serve the pasta in a deep bowl and pour the pesto sauce over. Mix as you eat to collect some sauce onto each bit of pasta.
I like spicy, so when I'm mixing the pesto and cream, I add 2-3 drops of my super spicy sauce to give it a little background heat.
I tend to not directly save the liquid, but when I tip the pasta into the strainer, as soon as the last pasta is in it I put it back over the pan, and what collects in there is enough to thin out the sauce. If you forget/don't get enough, just use tap water.
If I'm not feeling lazy, chicken goes great with this, poach it in the water with the pasta, or steam over the top of it are good options. Less lazy additions are an anchovy into the pesto mix, diced olives, fried strips of various veggies like capsicums and zucchini, mushrooms. Pretty much anything goes well.
Salt and Cheese to taste.
