Pasta with Tomatoes and Artichokes

The more I cook the more I become convinced that garlic and olive oil can transform anything into the edible. This pasta dish is an excellent quick fix when jar sauce just won't do. Total time from prep to plate - 1 hour (or less). Depending on your sauce/pasta ratio preference this serves about 4.

Ingredients:

Can diced tomatoes
GARLIC ! (today I used four fatty cloves, the amount varies depending on my mood)
Olive Oil
Oregano
Basil
Artichokes (quartered)
Onion (one tiny one or half a big one)
Pasta of choice (I prefer Rotini)

I chop up the garlic (my favorite part) and drop it into my too-small frying pan with a generous douse of extra virgin olive oil. I usually add the chopped onion immediately thereafter because I like my onions crispy and I hate when my garlic gets overcooked. Normally the BF chops up the onion but as I was flying solo this afternoon I had to brave the tears and go for it. Sometimes I add some salt and pepper to the garlic and onions, just so that there is more of a party going on.

As soon as I have the garlic near-brown I dump in the diced tomatoes, generous with the juice. Usually I don't use the whole can but today I did because I was lazy and couldn't think of a reason to save the leftover tomatoes. Too many canned tomatoes can smother the rest of the flavor (aka the garlic and olive oil!) so I compensated by cooking the sauce longer and letting juice burn off. Immediately after adding the tomatoes, I added a generous helping of artichokes. Mine happen to be lightly marinated which I think adds a nice kick. Lastly I sprinkled on some dried basil and oregano. Cook the sauce with occasional taste tests until you think its ready - usually when I get a nice balance of flavors and loose the "can" taste in the tomatoes.

When I boil my pasta I usually add a bit of olive oil to the water pre-boiling, its something I saw a lot of Italians do in Italy, and if its good enough for them its good enough for me. (To be fair I think I've seen a lot of California moms do it to, so the secret has been out for a while). If you don't cook your pasta this way though, I highly recommend it.

If I had a decently sized pan I would add the pasta to it with my sauce and mix it all together stir-fry style. Sadly my pan is a bit of a runt, so instead once the pasta is drained I dump the sauce concoction into my pot of pasta and mix it all up under low heat.

This is definitely my lazy-day go to pasta dish because the truth is, as long as you have the dynamic duo (that would be garlic and olive oil) and some pasta, you can scrounge your fridge and cupboards for whatever else looks good and toss it in and have a quick and yummy dish.

If you want to fancy it up, splash some white wine in when you add the tomatoes.