A little of this, a little of that, and a pasta sauce is born

This one is for all those folks out there who, from time to time, walk into the house and ask their cat, or the ghosts in the house (we have both), or just anyone : what the hell am I gonna make for dinner tonight.
For the three of you in the world who do not fall into that category, you may now leave, and do not identify yourself, because the rest of us hate you.
While her life may be at sixes and sevens (anyone know what that means, by the way?) Annalena is usually very good about planning meals for the week. She's not real good at balancing her checkbook, or keeping track of her shoes, but food? Yes, that's all taken care of.
Most of the time. With guitar lessons on Thursday, starting at 8, and with Guy's work schedule, there isn't a lot of room for fitting in dinner. So, Thursdays have really become a case of eating some casserole type dish prepared ahead of time, or something "simple" that I've thought out.
Sometimes, I forget to think. Does that happen to you? Well, here are my guidelines, as followed by me last night.
Many entries ago, I wrote "if you have eggs, you can eat." Well, if you have pasta, you can eat well. Fresh pasta, or dried pasta, it scarcely matters. It is simply a question of how long it will take to put the meal together, and we're talking about five or ten minutes here. And we're not talking about melting a glob of butter and grating cheese, although that feels mighty good sometime. No, this is how Annalena makes a COMPLETE sauce for her pasta.
Looking into the fridge last night, I had a whole lot of fava beans, that I'm using for a dinner party this weekend. TOO many fava beans. COMPONENT ONE: something green, that doesn't take long to cook. I had favas. You might have green beans, or asparagus, or even brussel sprouts (BLECH), or peas. Reaching further into the fridge. COMPONENT TWO: something solid, with heft: I had mushrooms that I had cooked earlier in the week, for use in something I never made. Think about mushrooms for a minute. When you bite into them, they have solidity. You KNOW you're eating something. They have "heft," or, as some of us like to say in connection with undefinables in people "gravitas" (I hate that word). You can use other things. I mention mushrooms, because I know I have vegetarian readers. But you could add some meat. For example, I had a cooked sausage left over from lunch, which I sliced thin. You could leave this out, and you wouldn't really notice the difference, I think. Finally COMPONENT THREE: something "saucy." Now, you have a multitude of possibilities here. Olive oil? Yup. Butter? Uh huh . Red sauce? You betcha. Ricotta.... YUP. There it is. Let us never forget how useful this cheese is. I LOVE ricotta. I could eat it every day. This is one where I honestly think, as I've said about a million times, you should spend your money and get good stuff. You will notice the difference. And if it's heated gently, ricotta pretty much "melts" into something nice and unctious. But if you wanted to, you could use cream. Or my beloved creme fraiche.

The trick in pulling these things together is to make sure that you have components that work together. Mushrooms/sausages/fava beans/ricotta/cream. I bet you can taste the combination, can't ya. How about doing some variations: mushrooms/asparagus/fontina cheese? Leeks/ground meat/peas/cream. Get the point? Or (and it's the last one, I promise): shrimp/peas/olive oil.

I need to point out that you are not necessarily following rules of Italian gastronomy here, but you know what? Italian gastronomy was created as a result of someone doing just what I'm encouraging you to do here.

If the components are cooked (and remember, all cheese HAS been cooked. "Ricotta," in fact, means "twice cooked," because it's the product of cooking milk, twice), all you need to do is give the mess some time to come together. And here is some advice: if you have an extra burner when you're cooking something mindfully, cook something else. You'll use it. I had the mushrooms because, last Saturday, while working on my soup, I cooked up a bunch of leeks, two different kinds of mushrooms, and then during the week, peeled fava beans and cooked them in the morning before work (she's nuts. Yes, she is).

Start a pot of water going and add some salt. You know the drill for cooking pasta by now, so we won't repeat it. When it's nearly ready, scoop out about a cup of water, in case you need it to loosen the sauce, and then toss the drained pasta into the sauce that you cooked. Toss it around and then add some salt and pepper, grated cheese if you like. Make a salad, and no one is going to complain about what you served for dinner, and if they did, send them home and tell them to cook for themselves.

Lesson here? Cook ahead. If you have good things in your fridge, you will never lack for the components of a good, proper meal. That pasta SURE WAS GOOD. A new combination is in the works.