From the Pantry: Cheesy Pasta with Cheese (and Basil)

After the pizza excitement last weekend, I realised two things: one, I needed something to eat for the rest of the week and two, I had a ton of fresh basil lying around. The thing that I absolutely hate about fresh herbs is that they cost two dollars a pack, you usually need about a teaspoon, and they last about two days. My windowsills aren't wide enough to grow any, and if even if they were I'd be paranoid about bugs. I don't have a yard. So, a lot of times my "leftover recipes" revolve around an herb. My first thought was some sort of simple pasta tossed with olive oil. I realised I needed to hurry the hell up and use an onion I had lying around, though, and some garlic, so I chopped up the onion and a few cloves of garlic and threw them in a tupperware with some olive oil. The good old three-minute microwave method worked for that, and I boiled some fettucine for the pasta. Then I decided to use up some cheese. I diced up the rest of the smoked Swiss I'd been using on sandwiches and threw that in with the hot pasta, onions and garlic, and basil. I love the way cheeses like swiss retain their shape, but still get all melty and delicious, if you do it that way. Last, I added probably three ounces of four peppers goat cheese. I realised that it worked sort of like sour cream (read: cheater sauce) because it's so creamy, but it also made my pasta very cheesy. And delicious!

The Bottom Line

Taste: ****
Appearance: **
Ease: **
Cost: $$$
Overall: ***