A Simple Supper

Some days I get so lost in whatever I'm doing that before you know it 7PM's rolled around and I have not a whit of a clue what I want or feel up to making myself for dinner. It's not a question of cooking for one or dining alone (that's my life every day!) but rather, "what should my stomach not reject immediately after it's eaten?". These days, as you'll know if you've been following me on Twitter, the answer is sadly "not much". Things that used to taste a certain way to me, for example, now are either totally devoid of flavour or are "tainted" with an odd aftertaste (thought not the metallic one associated with pine nuts). As someone who lives off of a spice heavy-handed life it's almost like being thrown into a foreign country!

I do get some randomly strange cravings occasionally, and my mom keeps joking that my condition that we've nicknamed "Bob" is really a baby alien that's taken up residence in my abdomen. These days, I'm willing to bet he's dancing a jig with stilettos on! The usual suspects keep cropping up for me, like Kraft Dinner (or even better, the white Cheddar mac from President's Choice), a big bowl of pasta (though strangely only the whole wheat kind) with nothing at all on it, even a full can of Habitant Pea Soup! Of course, the mac, pasta and soup are out with the dairy/wheat/meat product deal, so I cope.

This pasta meal was a result of one such craving - which I could actually dispatch since it was a) the beginning of the week and we had produce, not to mention our herb garden, and b) our pantry is pretty well stocked. A can of clams, some random spinach-rice pasta and a bunch of ground black pepper fell into place with some fresh tomato, a lemon and a couple leaves of basil that I ran out in the rain to pick from our little rock garden. It was a decent meal, not gourmet by any standards, but I really liked the tang and lemony-ness playing off the sweet tomatoes and the slightly salty clams.

So here's my nameless "guessipe", which I'm also going to pass along to Ruth's event Presto Pasta Nights care of Pam from Sidewalk Shoes.

Nameless Pasta
2 oz rice fettuccine, cooked + kept hot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 plum tomato, chopped
5-oz can whole baby clams, undrained
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
fresh ground black pepper
3 large leaves fresh basil, torn

1. Heat a small amount of water in a saucepan.
2. Add garlic and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Stir in tomato and cook until tomato softens.
4. Pour in clams and half the broth, stirring well to deglaze the pot. Raise heat to a simmer.
5. Stir in lemon zest and lemon juice, remove from heat and add cooked pasta.
6. Toss well to combine, pour into a bowl and top with pepper and basil.