Hot & Tasty

...and so easy.

This is a variant of a thing my mom used to make when I was a kid and the weather was too hot for cooking.

It's easy. Here's how.

Boil pasta. Drain canned meat: tuna, salmon, chicken, whatever. Probably not Spam, though if you like it, I'm not gonna knock it. Put the drained meat in the bottom of your serving bowl. If you have leftover veggies from another meal, dump those on top. (In this case, I had baby peas.) They'll warm through just right (and they're already cooked, anyway!!) once the rest of the concoction is added.

At about 5 minutes left of the pasta cooking time, add frozen vegetables to the pasta and pasta cooking water. Make sure to add some extra time -- 2-3 minutes -- because the cold of the frozen stuff will lower the temp of the boiling pasta. *Note*: don't put it in earlier than 5 minutes. It'll mess up the pasta cooking time. When it's all done, drain. Drain it well!!! Shake the collander, let it sit for a bit, even.

Dump all of that on top of the meat and leftover vegetables in the bowl. Add whatever seasoning you like: salt, pepper, fresh cilantro, dill, chervil, fresh onion or chives, celery leaves, garam masala, like that. Mix it a little.

Dress it!! What my mom used was simply mayonnaise. That was fine, but I prefer light Caesar or a raspberry vinaigrette or some sort of oil+vinegar+garlicky thing. Something with some bite to it. If I'm seasoning with garam masala, though, I'll stick to the mayo.

Mmmm. It's yummy. Good served warm or cold. Fresh or leftover.

Try it!!