Carrot Mushroom Fusilli

Just around 6pm, I feel so hungry. And the temptation to pick up the phone and order a take away is enormous. And that means my carefully planned dinner is put in to the refrigerator for tomorrow. I almost succumbed. And then I remembered a line from Everbody likes Sandwiches:

Just thinking about dinner — let alone getting up the energy to make it happen seemed like too damn much. But being the frugal girl that I am, I didn't want to order in take-out…Instead, I did what most modern cooks do. I went online to epicurious and typed in a couple things I had in my fridge and out popped a couple super simple recipes.

I did not go onto epicurious. Instead I looked in my fridge and kitchen and cooked up an easy dish with what I found.

Here is what I found:

1 small carrot
half a cube of Amul cheese
Dried mushrooms – a handful
Fusilli – a handful
Garlic – 3 cloves
Salt, pepper and dried rosemary
Olive oil

This is what I did:

Put the dried mushroom in a pan of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes while I watered the plants on my balcony. I also pruned some of them, in case you are wondering that my balcony must either be enormous or I must be having a veritable hanging garden. Neither. By the time I had finished with the plants, the mushrooms were tender. I drained them.
Next I put a pan of water to boil for the fusilli.
Then I scraped the carrot and washed it. And then using the peeler, I got really fine strips of carrot.
I chopped the garlic finely.
I grated the half cube of cheese.
I put a little olive oil into the frying pan and added the garlic.
As soon as it started to brown, I added the carrot strips and mushrooms.
Sprinkled some salt, paprika and dried rosemary.
Then I added the drained pasta and mixed well.
Lastly, I sprinked the grated cheese on top, turned off the flame and covered the pan and let it sit for couple of minutes.

The dish really looked good. The beige of the mushroom nicely contrasting with the orange of the carrots. (Alas no photos). And then, I ate it all up.

Upshot of this: The small quantity served as an appetizer and now I am really hungry and not really looking forward to the homely dinner. Eeeps!