I love food, and cooking is one of my favorite creative outlets, especially as we're limited for going to restaurants these days. My fridge is full of many jars of specialty ingredients like fig jam and colossal olives.
Now, a lot of the bold flavors I like come with a lot of extra goodness. Think about things like pickle juice or the marinade from quartered artichokes. All of that can be incorporated into other recipes.
Tonight, I wanted to use up a jar that used to be sun-dried tomatoes, but now was just the leftover juice. Yeah, this guy right here? Had about 2 inches of rich red oil left in it, essentially sun-dried tomato infused olive oil. That's not the "waste" of the jar of tomatoes - you would pay $$$ for a nice infused olive oil. :)
I also had some cream and goat cheese to use up, and settled on a pasta dish. Now, if you don't know how to start with oil and end up with a sauce, I'll teach you a super simple recipe. I didn't know about sauces myself until a few years ago, and was always trying to thicken the sauce and ending up with flour lumps.
Most sauces are these basic proportions:
- 2 tbsp fat (often butter)
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 cup liquid (milk for creamy sauces, broth for gravies)
For this sauce, the sun-dried tomato oil was the fat. Heat the oil over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and let cook for 1 minute until bubbling. Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth. Add any aromatics you want (this girl isn't shy with some garlic salt). Then I also added a large portion of goat cheese to add some richness to the sauce. Viola! Less than 10 minutes for a sauce worthy of a date night. Toss with some pasta, sauteed veggies, and grilled chicken, and you've got a balanced meal.
(Sooo creeeamy!)
While this isn't a huge money saver, it is a free flavor-packed upgrade to your regular cooking. Bon appetit!
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