?M: In Which She Shares the Kochs' Favorite Meal, Which Also Happens to be Real Cheap

Annie and Sarah both asked about my favorite meal to cook...

Look, I'm not going to print out the recipe, I know it by heart. We eat this every week. And every week I place this meal down in front of salivating Kochs, because it is absolutely delicious and everyone in our family loves and devours it. Like every episode of The Office, it never grows old.

It's from one of the best cookbooks ever made, The Best 30-Minute Recipe from Cooks Illustrated and you need a copy (it's even on sale!). You'll never need one again for weeknight meals. And everything by Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen is da bomb. You need no one else. Sweet CI/ATK, I love you, I marry you as my one and only cooking-loves for the rest of my cooking-life.


Skillet Baked Ziti. You'll find that on pg. 140, peeps. Nope, still don't have the book here. I just know. Go get the book. I'll share some highlights here.

Preheat the oven to 450. In a cold, oven-safe skillet, add olive oil, 6 cloves of garlic minced, 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t red pepper flakes and heat together over medium high heat. Heat and stir until fragrant, about one minute.
Add 3 C water, 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 1/2 t salt, 3 3/4 C ziti (or penne) and if you have fresh basil you can chop it and put it in in the end, but I always use dried, so I add it here- about 1/2 t or so. I just dump.

You can get enough crushed tomatoes at Sams for 4 meals in a big can for $2.50. Then divide it up into freezer bags. (Let's see, you need 28 oz and there are 8 oz in a cup, so.... you can figure it out. I forget.)

Also, we always used 100% whole grain pasta, but when things got really tight with Jim's commute (over twice as much on gas now since we moved) I had to let some things go. That was something I could let go for this meal. I got a humongous bag of penne at Sams- was it about $5? There's enough for like, ten meals or so in it. I can't remember, but, it's cheap. Everything else we eat is still all whole grain. This won't kill us.

Stir it up. Bring to a simmer, cover it and stir it often for 15-18 minutes- lower the heat but maintain a vigorous simmer.

That's right folks, it's just that simple. The pasta cooks right in the good stuff. And so it is with the Best 30 Minute Recipes- that ain't no lie. They mean 30 minutes, and they really are super easy. And all home made, with just a few purchased pre-mades as you need them, like tortillas etc. But they do tell you how to make your own...if you want... You can do it. It's simple and you'll get the hang of it fast. You will never go back. Your food will be way better, your family much healthier.

That, my friends, was a tangent.

So, we wait...
Quite possibly the weirdest picture of me ever...
And after the stirring and waiting... and by the way, in those 15-18 minutes you have time to get the whole kitchen straightened up again while you're waiting... Here it is- beautiful and ready for the next step.
Add 1/2 C parmesan cheese and 1/2 C Heavy Cream, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cover it with 1 C of shredded Mozzarella.

Bake it in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese is all melted and slightly browned in spots.
Agh! This stuff is the best!
This is what dinner-stuff laid out for six people looks like... And we get our parmesan at Sams too, can you tell? Oh, and our Italian dressing, and our spinach/greens...
While I cooked, Jim had the kids outside and Grace and Pate brought me some flowers. I just say NO to rotating this week, apparently.