Dinner Tonight: Pasta With Peas Recipe

Since frozen peas are delicious and pasta lasts nicely in my pantry for months, the two are always around my kitchen. But rarely do I think of combining the two. I had to cross that line when I stared blankly into my fridge and realized I essentially had nothing else left after a long weekend away. With hunger heavy upon the fiancée and me, something had to be done.

With neither of us daring leave the house, we searched a few dozen books until we came to Diane Seed's The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces. (We like her a lot!)

She had four interesting combinations of the two and one that would require no additional purchases at all—truly a pantry meal. She recommend tagliolini as the pasta shape, but all I had were shells. I felt a little like a kid, but they were actually the ideal candidate. Sometimes peas get lost in pasta, drifting to the plate instead of clinging to the noodles. But these little guys swallowed up the peas, providing the perfect carrying case to my mouth. The basil was a little blackened from the weekend but still tasty and a perfect foil for all that butter.