Something From Nothing: Fridge Clean-Out Dinner

These are my favorite types of dinners. You never know where your ingredients will lead you. Tonight, I was inspired by a small container of goat cheese that I impulsively picked up when I was walking around the Union Square Greenmarket this afternoon in the 62-degree February sun. So what did I have in my fridge that could play well with goat cheese? I found a container of leftover cooked orecchiette from last week that I really needed to use, so I decided I was going to be making something with pasta. Hmmm, lentils and goat cheese is a great combination, and I had a small amount of french lentils that would cook quickly, and hence, the dinner was borne.

I threw on a pot of water to cook the lentils, and heated a skillet to sauté some vegetables as a base for the lentils. I ended up with a great quick braise of onion, garlic, carrot and rutabaga (from our CSA) with white wine and herbes de Provence, to which I added the cooked lentils and a little balsamic vinegar. Thrown on the re-heated cooked pasta and garnished with crumbled goat cheese, another episode of clean-out-your-fridge-dinner is complete!

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