What's Your Emergency Meal?

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce

Everyone needs to have an emergency meal—something you can make at the last minute when dining-out plans fall through, your phone service is dead or it’s 3 a.m. and you’re too hungry to sleep.

College students fall back on ramen soup and cereal. No refrigeration is necessary. Who needs milk on your cereal if you’re desperate?

Need an Emergency Meal?

When I used to be away from the kitchen on assignment or working into the dinner hour, I could count on Bart to get food on the table.  It was always the same meal—Spaghetti with Clam Sauce—and it was a choice the whole family liked.

These days I work more from home and thus dinner is not a crisis meal. But it’s still satisfying to serve something guaranteed to be liked.

My emergency meal at the moment

Noodles and Sauce: Finding the Right Combo

In my youth, noodles cooked at home always meant spaghetti.  In Italian restaurants, I could order lasagna, ravioli or macaroni and cheese.  But I’d never heard of the intriguingly-named penne, farfalle (butterflies or bowties), linguine, bucatini, rotini, rotelle, rigatoni and maybe 100 more served in Italy.   This list doesn’t include Asian noodles.

My mother’s go-to cooking guide was “The Settlement Cook Book,” which had the curious subtitle “The Way to a Man’s Heart.”  It was initially published in 1901.  Her copy, the 22nd edition, was dated 1938.  Noodle recipes took up just a few pages, and you had to make your own noodles!  I don't remember her trying any of those recipes. 

Instead she reached for the canned spaghetti. 

Spaghetti Lefterini—My New Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

You probably make your own version of this pasta dish, which is not so subtly named after its main ingredient: leftovers.  My husband came up with ‘Lefterini’ after I told him I was thinking of combining some leftover Spaghetti and Clam Sauce with slices of a spicy chicken sausage I had in the freezer.

Why not?  The Spanish rice dish Paella combines clams, mussels and shrimp with sausages and chicken.

Just About Any Topping Goes with Spaghetti—Even Mussels

I love spaghetti so much that I could eat it every night of the week.  When I was younger, Spaghetti with Garlic Sauce was my dish of choice.  Hot pasta mixed with fresh chopped garlic, Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley kept me and my food budget happy.

Bart introduced me to Spaghetti with Clam Sauce (aka Spaghetti Vongole).  I immediately liked it, possibly because it bears a great resemblance to Spaghetti with Garlic Sauce, minus clams and tomatoes.

Why a Recipe Doesn’t Always Come Out the Same and Does It Matter?

Wholegrain Bread

Some dishes in my repertoire are decades old.  I make them at least monthly—Spaghetti with Clam Sauce, Asian Turkey Burgers and Blueberry Jam are good examples.  At least one—Wholegrain Bread—I make weekly.

And yet, even though the recipes are burned into my brain, they often turn out slightly differently.  The biggest botch, involving Spaghetti with Clam Sauce, came about when Bart once made it and forgot to add the clams.  But he was able to sprinkle the chopped clams on top, so all ended well.

I Need Something New for Dinner

As the chief cook in our house, I usually make the executive decision as to what’s for dinner.  It used to be easier.  When our children were small, they ate what was put in front of them, with just a few exceptions.  

Soup As a Meal

Bean, Vegetable and Sausage Soup (photo by Andy Mills)

I used to associate soup with being sick.  I’d be lying in bed, and my grandmother would bring me a bowl of homemade chicken soup.  I’d slurp it up and feel better.

Actually, I think this is a false memory.  My grandmother lived too far away to bring me soup, although whenever we visited her chicken soup was invariably on the menu.