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What To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking?

I love cooking. It is my passion, and probably it is never going to change it. I love trying out new recipes, checking new combinations of flavours and ingredients as well as making the favourite dishes healthier but still delicious.

However, just like everyone else for whom cooking is either a necessity or an everyday chore, I have days when I prefer to spend in the kitchen as little time as possible.

One of my ways of dealing with such times is to always have in a freezer a cooked meal. It’s true that not all dishes can be frozen without sacrificing the taste or texture of the food. But the majority of soups freeze well. And when I make a double portion, I almost don’t feel any difference in the amount and time of preparation.

Another solution for such lazy or busy days is to have a very simple meal. In my family, fried eggs with mashed potatoes and garlicky spinach are one of such meals. It takes probably 30 minutes in total to make it or even less if you get a helping hand to peel the potatoes. It is so simple but yet… so good! One of my daughters mentioned recently that was one of her favourite meals cooked by me!

Cherry Tomato Pasta With Sundried Tomatoes – One Dish, a Fix for two Days

If you don’t feel like cooking, you can go out to a restaurant or order takeaway. Or, you can prepare one meal and have it on two consecutive days but served differently. And this Cherry Tomato Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes fits the above requirements perfectly.

On the day you make it, serve it hot. You will have then a fantastic pasta with sundried tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, topped with basil and plenty of Parmesan cheese.

However, if you double the ingredients when you prepare this recipe, the next day you can serve it cold just with the fragrant basil. This way you will have a delicious pasta salad. You can either pack it to work or have it at home when you come back from work and don’t feel like cooking at all. Very convenient and besides, who doesn’t like pasta salad?

[recipe-video]

An image of Cherry Tomato Pasta With Sundried Tomatoes in a white bowl. There is a wooden board with a knife, basil leaves and garlic cloves behind the bowl. There is also a glass vase with white, purple and green flowers there.

Cherry Tomato Pasta With Sundried Tomatoes (also pasta salad)

Agnieszka Weiner

A pasta dish with two types of tomatoes that can be served two ways: hot or cold.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings people

Ingredients

400 g pasta shapes
4 tbsp oil from the jar with sundried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic sliced
750 g cherry tomatoes halved
150 g sundried tomatoes cut into strips
0,5 tsp sugar
3 tbsp chopped basil
2 tbsp olive oil
Parmesan cheese shaved

Instructions

Boil pasta al dente (as per packet instructions) in salted water.
Heat the oil from the jar, add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
Add two types of tomatoes, sugar and the seasoning and fry for 3 minutes stirring from time to time.
Add the cooked and drained pasta, olive oil and stir, check the seasoning.
If you are serving it hot, sprinkle the portions with basil and Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. If you serve it as a salad, add the basil before eating and omit the Parmesan cheese.