Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto

I'm going to go ahead and take full credit for this one : this is a Hillary original! I used to think I absolutely hated tomatoes (while loving ketchup and pizza, mind you) until I met my boyfriend. His mom's side of the family is very italian so needless to say when we met I had a choice before me : be polite and eat the tomatoes, or book a one way ticket to bad first impressionville.

I ate the tomatoes.

And they were delicious!!! I've been trying to eat twice as many to make up for lost years ever since I realized how wonderful they can be, and I've definitely become way more interested in italian cuisine. I do still like doing things my own way though, so this penne dish is what my brain came up with when I felt like creating something italian inspired. Someday I promise I'll learn how to make sauce and meatballs, stay tuned!

Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto  (2 servings)

Ingredients

- 2 tomatoes, diced

- 1 large onion, diced

- 1 large handful of arugula, chopped

- 1 large clove of garlic, minced

- olive oil

- 2 servings of penne (follow box serving size)

- 2 heaping tbsp of pesto

- grated parmesan (if desired)

Directions

- Boil a pot of water and put penne in to cook (12 minutes for al dente, I prefer 14)

- While pasta cooks, chop up the tomato, onion, arugula and garlic

- Toss all of these in a large pan or wok and sprinkle generously with olive oil, frying on medium heat

- Fry until onion begin to look more transparent and tomatoes have softened 

-Turn the heat down and continue to fry until pasta is done cooking, it will allow flavours to mix with each other

- Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the frying pan, along with pesto

- Mix all ingredients together on low heat

- Add a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese if desired, mixing in

- Serve

TIPS FOR QUICK EASY FOOD

1) Pick things you know go well together. In this case, pasta, tomatoes, garlic and pesto are all commonly used ingredients in italian food, so you already know you can throw them together and it'll all turn out fine. It doesn't matter if you don't know for sure, make educated guesses.

2) Don't use the oven. Anything that needs to be baked either takes forever or at the very least requires you to preheat the oven. Ovens are for long, thought out meals, not "I just got home from the gym, dear god I need sustenance NOW" meals.

3) Chop things in big chunks just because you can. It'll cook down anyway, no need to cut things into perfectly symmetrical tiny cubes. You just do you, no one's going to break out a ruler.