Fridge Clear-Out Pasta Sauce

My Thursday lunch is inevitably an interesting one.

With the next CSA box bearing down on me in but a few hours, and my need to have a refreshed and cleaned fridge ready to welcome it, I often find myself at noon, staring anxiously into the refrigerator at leftovers and what remains from the previous box, wondering how to turn it all into a relatively cohesive and appetizing lunch.

This week I had done pretty well all around: there was a very sad bok choy remaining that headed straight for the compost barrel with my apologies, but the principal offender was the mess of Roma tomatoes that I had somehow not factored into my weekly meal plan and which needed eating since more tomatoes were on their way. I had a serving of my Spicy Cold-Busting Lentil Soup on hand, as well as a deli cup of red peppers that I had roasted earlier in the week.

This post is, essentially, a love story to fridge, freezer and vegetable-box triage cuisine. When it is successful, it feels like alchemy. You will not be able to recreate what i did because the contents of your fridge, freezer, and pantry will differ, but the point of this post is simply to demonstrate that the sum of all leftovers can become something innovative and magical if you keep an open mind about the leftovers that you have and how they can be combined to make something new.

Case in point, and my thought process to success:

My first thought while staring at my tomatoes was shakshuka, until I realized that, I was I out of eggs (on their way in my CSA box too.) Then I considered a really garlicky tomato sauce, which I thought could be delicious with homemade black pepper Spätzle. The thought went through my mind that, while delicious, this seemed like a lot of work, especially at lunchtime, but then I remembered that I had fresh pasta in the freezer so I was instantly back on track.

All this to say that I cooked the tomatoes down with finely chopped onion and plenty of garlic. I tasted the sauce and adjusted the flavor with a bit of salt, a splash of hot sauce, and a generous pinch of sugar, to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes started to break down and the onions were soft, I added the lentil soup to the tomato base along with the remainder of my roasted red peppers, chopped, and let this all cook down while I heated the pasta water and then cooked my pasta for the three minutes fresh pasta typically requires.

All that was left after that was to add a splash of pasta water to the sauce, drain the pasta, and combine as much of the sauce with it as I wanted, and to dig in. This sauce was tangy and punchy and needed no grated Parmesan or chopped herbs for it to shine. It would have been equally delicious blended into a soup. I could have taken it a step further and cooked off all the liquid, and eaten this as is, like a dip, dunking bread into it as I did.

So, lunch was made, eaten, and it was terrifically good. More importantly, the fridge is now ready for its new vegetable offerings .

And so, I begin again.