Cooking for one isn't easy

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My wife and son are away, meaning I do less food shopping and much less cooking. In fact, with the heat waves we've been having, I may cook a meal once a week, if that, and my meals are a lot less formal.


The other night, I used organic spinach leaves to cover a Napoletana pizza with fresh mozzarella and red sauce from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood ($4.99), added a few cherry tomato halves from the garden, seasoned it and drizzled on extra-virgin olive oil. I popped it into a 375-degree oven for less than a half hour.


The chewy dough crisped up a bit and the spinach softened. Half of the 12-inch pizza, a big salad with cucumber from the garden, wine and seltzer made a fine dinner.


Last week, I boiled a half-pound of rigatoni and in a separate pan, heated up half of a 32-ounce bottle of marinara sauce with added seasonings and red-pepper flakes, plenty of fresh spinach and cherry tomato halves. I was out of anchovies, but would have added them to the sauce.




At the table, I was liberal with grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, poured myself a glass of red wine and used toasted baguette to sop up the remaining sauce. I also ate that with a big salad. The leftovers made a second meal. 


At Costco in Hackensack, I bought a 1.73-pound, skin-on fillet of fresh wild sockeye salmon ($8.99 a pound, product of USA) on Tuesday, cut it into six portions; added fresh lemon juice, salt, Aleppo pepper and chopped parsley and other herbs; and baked it at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes for medium. I gobbled down one portion down without salad or bread, and it was moist, fatty and delicious.


This morning, I made a sandwich on 100% whole grain toast for breakfast: half a portion of baked wild salmon, a slice of smoked wild sockeye, leftover spinach frittata, tomato from the garden, romaine lettuce and Dijon mustard. It was terrific, though too big to fit in my mouth.


The remaining baked wild salmon will be wonderful right out of the fridge with a big salad or on another sandwich, and should last me through the week.


For snacks, I have plenty of Washington State cherries, Jersey blueberries, roasted almonds and low-fat cheese on hand.

Cooking for one is no fun

For the past three days, I have been eating black fettuccine with tomato sauce, wild-caught shrimp and arugula that I prepared Sunday night (recipe follows). It's delicious, of course, but with my wife and son away, I am rediscovering how difficult it is to cook for one.

When I was single, I put aside Sunday evenings to cook that day's dinner and four meals for the week ahead. I might roast a chicken and prepare a pound of pasta, diving them into five meals and supplementing them with salad and bread. Friday nights were for takeout and Saturday nights were for my only restaurant meal of the week.

Now that I am married, we cook our five meals individually (until I'm left alone and resort to my old methods).

Black fettuccine for seafood lovers

1 pound wild-caught shrimp

1 can of anchovies in oil

black squid-ink fettuccine, 12 ounces to 16 ounces

1 32-ounce jar of Fairway Market pasta sauce, any variety

large bunch of arugula or basil

red-pepper flakes

dehydrated garlic chips or chopped fresh garlic to taste

Italian seasoning

extra-virgin olive oil

Boil water for pasta, add extra-virgin olive oil to a sautee pan. In a separate pot with lid, heat sauce, anchovies in oil, garlic and Italian seasoning.

Devein and shell shrimp, and season with red-pepper flakes, salt and ground black pepper. Sautee until shrimp curl up and turn pink, turning once. Don't overcook.

The handmade pasta I bought took three to four minutes to cook al dente.

Add drained pasta, shrimp and roughly chopped arugula or basil to pot with sauce and, using tongs, mix well.

Serve with salad, good bread and red wine. Serves four.

Preparation tip: No matter how well I wash arugula, some grit always seems to stay behind. So the next time, I will use fresh basil and plenty of it. You will not taste the anchovies, which dissolve, but they will give your sauce a new dimension.

Image by nhanusek via Flickr