Growing up, I had a friend whose family would order
junkyard pizza. It was a pizza with every conceivable topping on it. Now this was just not something my family ever did -- everyone had too many topping they didn't like and we could have never agreed on what to include or exclude... I was shocked when I finally got brave enough to try a slice. It was delicious. Everything worked together even when they didn't work alone.
We don't order too much pizza these days, but the
junkyard concept comes into play at our house still. It's usually a last minute meal and it starts when I look in the fridge and pull something together. It happened the other night and I thought I'd share the yummy results.
I opened the refrigerator and discovered that I had the following leftovers already cooked -- 2 large sausage links, 3 grilled chicken tenders and a bowl of spaghetti noodles. Hmm... what could I do? I grabbed a couple of large zucchinis and half an onion and a can of diced tomatoes and got started.
I sliced the chicken tenders and sausage links on the diagonal -- just to make them look bigger and strech it a bit. I do this often and it helps us use less meat and still feel satisfied because it looks like there's more meat there. It works for us :). I then sliced the onion and zucchini up very thinly. I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in my skillet and added the meat and onions, along with 2 cloves of freshly pressed garlic. I stirred this around until the onions became almost clear. I then added the zucchini. I sprinkled on salt and freshly ground pepper and bruschetta seasoning. I get this seasoning in its own grinder bottle from our local Italian food supplier and it's the Cannamela brand. So delicious!!! Once the zucchini were just softened, I added in the can of tomatoes. I kept stirring this all together and let it simmer for a few minutes. I tasted it a few times while simmering and adjusted the seasoning as needed.
I ran the cooked pasta under warm water from the faucet until they were warmed. I put some noodles on each plate and topped with the sauce. It was delicious. Even the kids cleaned their plates.
Do you ever just throw things in a pan and see what happens?
