A Nice Meal to End a Long Day

I didn’t really feel like cooking dinner, but as there was nothing much in the fridge, and everyone else had already done their own thing, I got a chance to play a bit.

I only had in mind doing something with orzo (a rice-shaped/sized pasta) and tomatoes. So, I set the orzo to cook. While that was happening, I put 1 tsp of olive oil in a skillet and tossed in about eight small stuffed green olives from the fridge, and about a half cup of button mushrooms from a jar in the pantry.

While those were going, I cut a few thick slices of onion, coarsely chopped them, and threw them in the skillet as well, adding some salt. I opened a can of diced tomatoes and drained them, reserving the liquid. Once the onions had sweated, I added the tomatoes, oregano and basil, a dash of crushed red pepper, salt and pepper, and about a 1/4 c dry white wine. I cooked that down until the pan was dry.

At that point, the orzo was done, so I drained it and added it to the skillet along with a 1/4 c each of corn and cooked spinach that were leftover in the fridge. Now I added about half of the tomato liquid and waited for it to reduce. I then added the remaining liquid and cooked the mix down until most of the liquid had boiled off.

Mmmmm mmmm good. My ad-libbed orzo puttanesca came out tasting much better than I expected. I could have done without having to clean up my mess, but all-in-all, it was worth it. Good dinner.