Having friends visit at school is always a great time once they get there but can be very stressful in planning to accommodate for your guests. The major issue for me always is based around food, what will I feed my guests or where do I want to bring them to eat? It's a little less stressful though when the visitors are your best friends for almost eight years and you know exactly what they like. Thankfully this was the case for me when my two best friends came up to visit for the Third Eye Blind concert here at URI back in the beginning of April.
I knew I had to feed them for two nights and wanted to make something that would last. The motto I learned from my mother, cook once eat twice, has been seeming to really apply to my life a lot lately. I chose to make a large fresh tomato, basil and mozzarella salad for us to eat during the weekend. I always seem to think I am cooking for an army and we had more than enough to snack on from Friday night until Sunday for dinner.
We were getting ready to head to the show and wanted to eat something quick and easy that still tasted good. I suggested we just throw on a pot of pasta and open up a jar of red sauce and everyone seemed to agree with the simple go-to dinner idea.
When I opened the fridge to pull out the jar of sauce the remaining tomato, basil and mozzarella salad was starting me in the face and I had an idea...
I drained the pasta and before placing it back in the pot I quickly threw in some olive oil in the pot and poured in what was left of the salad, sauteing it for a few minutes until the tomatoes started to cook down. Then I mixed in the hot pasta and some of the jarred sauce. We used our fresh left overs to add great flavors to a simple pasta dish, it was delicious.
