One-Dish Wonderful

Surviving off of Taco-Hell, Chalupas of questionable origin, Burger King and Pizza hut is just surviving. My friend asked me the other day "How can you be so into cooking and still like eating this junk?" My answer was "I never said anything about liking this crap."

It's a fact that my current college program has me believing in time travel, because I'm working more hours than can fit into a week. I've been getting home exhausted, too tired to even cook a peanut butter sandwich. With finals approaching, yet still no end in sight to the fast-food quandry in which I find myself, I had to make a little escape. With little in the fridge or cupboards, I went with an old stand-by for dinner, the one-dish skillet meal, sans the "Hamburger Helper".

This time it was a baked pasta. Baked Penne to be precise. Normally, the only baked pastas one has regular exposure to are Lasagna and Zitis, but because both of these dishes are time consuming, I wanted to see what would happen if I tried this in one dish.

The ingredients were pretty simple. I had some mushrooms that looked good still, some garlic, onion, olive oil, and a big can of tomatoes. A little knifework, some mashing and sauteing yielded a very servicable duxelles, after which I deglazed with some white wine. I like telling people I made "Duxelles" for dinner. They think I'm all smart and Chefy, but it's just a fancy-pants word for "Sauteed onions and mushrooms." Deglazing also sounds cool, instead of "I dumped a bunch of wine in the pan." But I digress.

In went the tomatoes, a few cups of water for the 12 ounces of pasta to absorb, and then then top went on. Simmering away, my apartment went from smelling like dirty scrubs and carving wax to that of a small mom and pop style Trattoria.
Once the pasta was "pre-aldente but not raw, that's when the leftover 1/3 bag of mozzarella went in, along with some fresh chopped basil and a bit of parsley. I thickened the mixture with just a dousing of flour very gently to avoid lumps forming,
tossed more cheese on top, and into a 475 degree oven it went to get ooey gooey cheesey and good.

The result? Ok, so it's not the baked Ziti Mama used to make, but with a little basil and pecorino on top, it sure did come close. Bright tomato flavor balanced beautifully with the freshness of the herbs, the Pasta had finished to a perfect al dente, and the sauce was gravy-thick without tasting starchy. A few torn basil leaves over the top really made it a confort food dish for me, and for just a few short bites, the rigors of the scholastic environment faded from my mind; replaced by the aromas and taste of home. And that is truly a one-dish-wonder I can handle.