Cleaning Out The Fridge And Pantry

It was use it or lose it time for the red pepper and mushrooms. I wouldn't call this a "recipe" at least not in the commonly understood sense, but it is a good illustration of what you can toss together for dinner in under an hour. Last evening I did a similar dish with a pound of mushrooms, butter, sherry and heavy cream served over pasta. I like the idea of being able to cook everything but the pasta in a large frying pan as I do not have a dishwasher and it gets hard on the hands after a while (bread baking ain't so hot on the skin either). Clean-up was really quick and painless both nights.

You may be wondering about the frying pan. It is a brand called Scanpan and is made in (duh) Denmark. These pans are not cheap, but they are indestructible. The pan is twenty years old and still going strong. I use it for everything from deep frying to making pupusas. In fact, it is probably the best piece of cooking equipment I've ever used. Period. But they're not cheap, so when you go looking at them on the web, don't freak out because I warned you.

The dish used:

1 tin of chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen peas, defrosted

3 shallots, sliced thin

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

salt and pepper

(about) 5 tablespoons olive oil

1 red pepper, chopped

a handful of parsley, chopped

8 oz. of button mushrooms, chopped

I sauteed everything in a large pan for about twenty minutes. In the last five, I covered it to let it get softer (You can skip this if you don't have a small child dining with you). I served it over bow tie pasta and tossed with additional oil. Right before serving I added a bit of grated Parmesan cheese.

See, I told you it wasn't difficult.