I have family that moved back to town and are now only 10 minutes away. My freezer usually have some of the ‘best’ tomato sauce, linked below, which has worked well so far. What other items do you keep in your freezer, or otherwise ready, to put together a meal for guests in say, a half hour or an hour?
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe
by NDNW
6 Comments
See, I just keep the whole meal in the freezer. I flat out just put all leftovers and all meals into individual portions and freeze them. I could serve a guest completely from scratch lasagnas, salsa Verde wet taquitos, burrito bowls, queso, salmon and veggies, grilled chicken and veggies, spinach dip, chicken pastas, pot roast with mashed potatoes, egg scrambles, roasted potatoes, sides of beans and rice, or whatever other meal I decide to freeze up.
I make this recipe once/month. It’s so damn good/easy, and if you have a Costco membership, cheap as hell. They sell a #10 can of San Marzano tomatoes for $5. It’s really tasty and beyond versatile. We try to freeze some on occasion, but usually end up using it all within 3 days of making it.
I keep cans of Maesri Thai curry paste which allows me to throw together a curry in about 45 minutes. The other ingredients in Derek Lucci’s yellow curry (for example) are either quite stable or frequently used in my house. I’ve compared to Mae Ploy which I personally find to be unbearably salty.
https://www.seriouseats.com/gaeng-garee-makheua-yao-yellow-curry-with-eggplant-5190990
Cheating, but we always have a bag of
gougères in the freezer…
https://www.seriouseats.com/gougeres
Reservations
My idea of a quick meal is getting everything done before the pasta water comes to a boil and finishes cooking (or the rice to finish…)
Water goes on, and then I start chopping and sauteing. Obviously a bone in protein may not make the cut.
Anyways, as you alluded to, pasta is always great. But you gotta really jazz up the stuff that goes in it if you’re cooking for guests vs cooking for yourself or spouse (lots of garlic, chili flakes, finish with butter, and a healthy coating of shaved parm). Mushrooms, spinach, some protein from the fridge… Or no red sauce, which I think is more classy, lots of olive oil, some butter, lemon juice, chopped canned clams, herbs from the roof garden.
But quite frankly it all depends on what you have in the house. We keep a well stocked spice shelf, plenty of dry starch options, all the condiments, and always some onions, garlic, carrots and celery. With those fundamentals we could do Latin food, Asian food, Italian, etc.