LEFTOVERS

One of my favorite Italian-inspired meals is gnocchi with tomato, mushroom & basil sauce. Today I planned to make this dish and got all the ingredients except gnocchi. I forgot the gnocchi. Well, I had some left-over rice from two nights ago and decided to use that instead.

Also, I had a bunch of regular "hot house" tomatoes that were becoming overly soft, so I used them rather than roma tomatoes. I prefer roma tomatoes. Romas make a thicker sauce.

So here's my recipe for Rice with Tomato, Mushroom & Basic Sauce.

Makes one meal for one hungry person

INGREDIENTS:

4 large Mushrooms, sliced

2 large tomatoes (or 3 romas), roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, smashed

1 cup cooked rice

4-5 basil leaves

salt, pepper, hot sauce (or red pepper flakes) to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Slice Mushrooms

2. Heat pan with olive oil

3. Saute mushrooms

4. Chop / smash garlic

5. Add garlic to pan with mushrooms

6. Chop Tomatoes into quarters (or eights depending on size)

7. Add tomatoes to pan

8. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce

9. Stir together, mash down the tomatoes to release the juices

10. Cook for a few minutes until tomatoes cook and make a light sauce

11. Stir in the rice until heated

12. Wash basil leaves. Stack leaves on top of each other. Roll leaves up like a carpet. Snip with scissors into strips directly into the pan.

13. Top with fresh parmesan cheese & Enjoy!