For this week’s Back to Basics post, it’s about using your pantry staples to make dinner. If your pantry is like mine, you always have canned foods that you forget about, you have a box of pasta, and you might have a pasta sauce or some veggies in the freezer.

During the week, I still make it a goal to cook at home a couple of nights, even though my energy is dwindling and I’m spending less time on my feet. And with a move coming up, I’m trying to use things up in the pantry and freezer.

For this pantry pasta, I used a box of pasta, canned green olives, canned artichoke hearts, an onion, garlic, spices, leftover spicy sausage in the freezer, and parsley, parmesan cheese, and spinach in the fridge. I also had an open can of marinara sauce from our pizza night a week before.

You can easily adapt to use any vegetables you have in the fridge or freezer.

• In one pot, I boiled water and added the pasta according to the instructions.
• In a large sautee pan, I started by sautee-ing a yellow onion and garlic. Then I added the olives and artichoke hearts and then the sausage sliced up (it was pre-cooked). I let all of that heat up and cook together, and then added about 1/2 C of marinara sauce.
• I removed from the heat while the pasta cooked. One tip we learned from TV is to use a few spoonfuls of pasta water in your sauce. I took about 3 large spoonfuls (the big stirring spoons) of pasta water and added it to the veggies when the marinara went in.
• Then drain the pasta and add back to the pasta pot. Add all veggies to pasta, and another 1/2 C marinara. Add more or less if you like.
• Top with parsley and Parmesan.
• I served mine over wilted spinach to add another fresh green.