Lately, life’s been busy. So I’ve been reaching into my stack of homemade meals in the freezer or into the pantry for ingredients for a quick pasta. We all have those days, weeks, even months, when you don’t have the time for a big grocery store trip, or you want to pinch a few extra pennies at the end of the month.
One of my favorite things to have my grandma cook is arroz cubano. When she and my grandpa come to visit from Brazil the menu usually looks something like this:
Tortilla de Patata
Paella
Pollo Tia Ely
Arroz Cubano
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
One of these things does not fit. But that’s a long story.
Arroz cubano is pretty fancy. It’s white rice shaped into a mound using a mug, then topped with tomato sauce and a perfectly fried egg. Definitely a classic stretching-the-grocery-budget meal, and definitely a kid-pleaser. Anything is immediately more exciting when it looks like a volcano and can be smashed. That’s a fact of life.
Luckily, these days I’m about 1% more sophisticated than my rice-volcano-smashing 8-year-old self, and so I came up with this warm farro bowl that has all the nostalgic goodness of arroz cubano. This is the perfect starter meal if you’ve never cooked farro before—it’s quick cooking, simple, and pretty darn foolproof. The key is to keep tasting your farro and adding more liquid if it needs it—it’ll be done when it’s firm but not crunchy.
I know every magazine, website, and TV show has been sharing endless recipes for holidays meals…but what do we eat to get us there? I know I’ll be spending the next month and a half on a series of buses, trains, planes, and cars to get home for Thanksgiving and the holidays. And it is not fun to spend $12 on a mediocre burger at the T.G.I. Friday’s at the airport.
So why not make my own veggie-packed, just-as-yummy lunch to go? That’s what this recipe is all about.
Pesto Pasta Salad
This has all the components of an awesome meal: ready in 15 minutes; easily adaptable to whatever veggies you have on hand; healthy; well-rounded; oh-so- delicious; and easily packed up for your next long trip! By making the pesto without pine nuts you also save quite a bit of money, and you won’t have to worry about eating it near anyone who has nut allergies.
1 serving
Nut-Free Pesto
½ cup basil leaves
1 small garlic clove
¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pasta Salad
½ cup short whole wheat pasta (I used strozzapreti from Severino.)
½ cup baby spinach
¼ cup cherry tomatoes
5-6 kalamata olives
1/8 of a medium cucumber
Fill a medium pot with water and place it over high heat to boil. While it heats up, you can start the pesto. Place all the pesto ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
If the water is boiling, go ahead and add the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt.
Quarter the cherry tomatoes and chop the cucumber to be about the same size. Slice the olives and roughly chop the spinach, then place all the veggies directly into your Tupperware or other to-go container.
If the pasta is ready, strain it, stir a bit of olive oil onto it so it doesn’t stick, then place it in the refrigerator to cool for a few minutes.
Once the pasta is cool, add it to the container with the veggies, spoon in the pesto, and toss everything until it’s coated in the pesto. Enjoy on your next trip!
Note: I highly recommend using an extra rubber band around your to-go container. Unless you’re cool with having a purse full of pesto.
