Single Pot, I Kid You Not

With such a busy evening schedule lately, I'm always looking for quick meals with few steps and not a lot of dishes to wash.  Sometimes I think something will be quick and we end up scrambling around to finish the meal with enough time to eat it before we have to dart out the door in a variety of directions.  I was super excited when I came across this traditional Italian one pot pasta in a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It never occurred to me that you could cook the sauce and the pasta in the same pot AT THE SAME TIME!  What, are you kidding me?  It's genius.  I roughly made it they way they advised in the magazine but with a couple of my own additions of course.  I can't wait to try it again with other variations on the sauce.

Nelsy and the kids got me this pot for Mother's day.  I've had my eye out for a nice large, deep skillet for a while.  I'd been struggling with the whole non-stick situation.  I have a large (not so deep) skillet that is full stick and can be rather annoying at times.  With all the info out there about the creepy materials used to make the pan non stick I wasn't sure what to do.  They found this ceramic pot which nothing sticks to, even wipes out with a paper towel if needed between stages. 

This is a simple pasta but you can get creative with it (and I intend to very soon!).  I chopped three tomatoes,  about a cup (loosely packed) of fresh basil, about a quarter of a red onion (that's the only onion I had), and four or five cloves of garlic.

Put about 12 or so ounces of linguine in the pot with the herbs and veg.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of salt and 4 1/2 cups of water to the pot.

Bring to a boil and toss occasionally with tongs to keep pasta from sticking together.  Cook according to directions on the pasta box, until al dente.

Most of the water will be absorbed by the end of the cooking time.  Remove from heat.  I added some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a little lemon zest to the pot stirring until slightly creamy but off the heat.  Add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.  Serve Immediately.

Serve it up as a main dish or as a side with chicken, fish or what ever else you have on hand.  When you're ready to clean up, there's only one pot to wash! I love that.