You’re in between paychecks. Or ‘in between engagements’ like we say in show bidness. The fridge is almost empty. You’ve got one pound of pasta. This is where you have to get real creative.

When I was living down on Woody Road (really) on Sue Creek in beautiful Essex, MD, I was faced with this challenge many a time - how to make a pasta sauce when you got a lot of nothing. I once made a sauce with olive oil, garlic, pepperoncini, capers, olives, and cocktail onions. Sounds disgusting? It was great. Sometimes you can take the most unlikely ingredients, put ‘em all together, and it works. Kind of like music. Sometimes necessity can force you to get real creative. Like last night…

I looked in the fridge. Almost bare. I’ll tell you what I did, step by step.

One note-when you chop veggies, remove the stems and seeds and any funky stuff.

I put a big pot of water on at the highest temp. Pasta needs to cook in lots of water at the highest temp.

I put 4 tablespoons or so of Extra Virgin olive oil in a big saucepan. Turned the heat on medium low.

I chopped 8 (I know it’s a lot!) cloves of garlic and tossed them in the olive oil. I took one shallot, chopped it up, and tossed it in with the garlic and oil. I cut up half a white onion, and threw it in with the shallot, garlic, and oil. I grated three medium sized carrots right into the saucepan. Stir it up.I chopped up one red bell pepper. In the sauce. Stir it up.I put in about a half cup of vegetable broth, and a half cup of Asti Spumante champagne that my mom, the Slim Mom, gave me this past New Year’s. Cheers!

Turn the heat up to medium. Now we’re cookin’!!!

I washed about 10 oz. of fresh spinach, tore off the stems and tore the leaves into little pieces. In the sauce. Returned heat to medium low, or low-just enough to keep it warm, and let all these guys get to know one another. Stir gently, constantly.

The pasta water boils. I added some salt to the water. I took a pound of penne rigate (pens with ridges) pasta, put it in the water. Keep that heat on at the highest setting! When the pasta was done (al dente! Never mushy! Always firm!), drain. Transfer to warm bowl. Drizzle a little fresh (Extra Virgin-or at least not too promiscuous) olive oil. Toss gently.

Introduce the sauce to the pasta. Dump it all on. Stir it up. Ever so gently. Let it sit.

I took some pignoli (pine nuts), about 1/2 cup, and browned them over high heat in a small, dry saucepan.

I put some pasta in a dish, grated some Romano cheese on top, sprinkled on some toasted pine nuts, and-it was delish! Pot Luck Pasta!!!