Tonight’s dinner required some last-minute substitutions, but that’s OK! It just goes to show the versatility of the baked pasta dish that has become one of my favorite go-to impressive-but-easy dinnertime selections. No penne? Add rotini! Or even macaroni. Does your package of chorizo have a gaping hole that you somehow failed to notice prior to leaving the grocery store? Add extra mushrooms! Lactose-intolerant? Add Daiya mozzarella to the top! And so on and so forth.
Tonight, rotini was part of the plan, but so was a package of vegetarian chorizo, which I was going to slice into coins. Unfortunately, it had a hole on the back of the package, and no discernible reason for developing such a thing in the refrigerator. More frugal cooks may have shrugged it off and moved on, chorizo in tow, but not me. This recessionista has her limits. :)
Thankfully, I had a second jar of sliced button mushrooms in the pantry, so I added them into the lasagna pan in the chorizo’s stead and carried on with my life. I also added half a jar of capers, since I was rooting around in the cabinet and they were sitting there so prim and proper.
As far as the salad goes, no substitutions were needed! The lettuce is growing strong and plentiful in the back yard, and I had a new container of cherry tomatoes ripe for the eating. Add in a can of green olives and slices of fresh spring onion from Great Country Farms, and it was a salad that couldn’t be beat!
:)