Comfort Food

I had a pretty shitty single gal night last night. I don't expect that many of my readers identify with dating at 29, so I'm not even going to go into the details, except to tell you that when I finally pulled myself from bed at 3:30pm, I really needed pasta. (To be honest, I really needed macaroni & cheese, but that wasn't happening without a trip to the store, which wasn't happening in my current physical and emotional state.)

As usual, my cooking is on a what-I-have-on-hand basis, so I took this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini, and tweaked it to fit my pantry.

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 serving pasta
1 C hot chicken stock
1 small zucchini, matchsticked
1/8 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C grated cheese

(For some ungodly reason, I am out of parmesan - I went to the store on Friday but it's such a staple for me I didn't know I was out- instead, I used my new favorite cheese in the world, from Wensleydale- smoked cheddar with carmelised onions. It wasn't easy to grate but it melted well and the sweet, smoky flavor mingled with my dish nicely.)

Directions:
Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add garlic and onions, and cook for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add in dry pasta and cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until the pasta has a nice coating of oil on it. Add in a cup of hot stock, cover and reduce heat. After about 5 minutes, throw in zucchini and continue to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed. I threw in the grated cheddar at the end and served immediately, with fresh cracked pepper.