Cherry Tomato Pasta with Beyond Sausage

I'm not a big fan of the Beyond Burger, but I know someone who reported that Beyond Sausage was pretty good, so I bought some. Guess what? It IS pretty good!

I started with a recipe for "Cherry Tomato Sauce with Olives" from a cookbook called "Pasta Sauces," which I use fairly frequently. You will see that when I first made this recipe, a shocking fifteen years ago, I noted that it was "excellent + easy," and I stand by that.

I used to be such a rigid follower of recipes. But in the past year or so, making constant cooking mistakes has emboldened me. Because the dishes usually turn out edible, even if I use the wrong quantities or leave things out or I'm forced to substitute things. So why not wing it a bit?

In that spirit, I measured nothing when I made the dish a few days ago. I had some cherry tomatoes, I had some (kalamata, not canned black) olives, I had about half a box of pasta, and I had two Beyond Sausages that were begging for a begging for a walk-on roll on the team. Everything went in!

Aren't these a beautiful red?

I was holding a cookie sheet because I was using it as a lid, since I didn't have one for that skillet.

I added the chopped-up sausages with about 7 minutes of cooking time remaining, and that was the perfect amount. I left out the red pepper flakes, as always. I yearn for the apparently far-off day when my small backup dancer will presumably embrace spiciness.

Peace, corn, and pasta with fake meat.

I completely forgot to add the lemon zest and parmesan at the end, but did not notice their absence. And thus it was a tasty vegan dish.

Vegan Vednesday came and went this week without my reporting on it, but we went to Ani Ramen in Summit for dinner - my first time at Ani Ramen, which has a big fan base. I ordered the vegan ramen and thought it was great. 

I do wish they had kid-sized portions on offer, and Emma noticed disapprovingly that her supposedly non-spicy ramen was a tiny bit spicy, as was mine (which I loved). And it was loud as heck in there. I'm thinking takeout is probably the way to go.

We wrapped up this week with a visit to the Morristown Festival of Books. It makes me so happy to surround myself with literary people. We went to two sessions with kids authors, and the one with Heather Ross was interactive and fun. She drew a few of the kids in the audience, and Emma volunteered to draw her, with her tongue stuck out.