The Perfect Pantry®

Recipe for baked three-cheese bow-tie pasta

Sometimes -- very lucky times, indeed -- you find yourself with a house full of kids and grandkids having so much fun playing in the snow that afternoon turns into evening and, while wet jackets and mittens and shoes bang around in the clothes dryer, everyone decides to stay for dinner. If that happens, and you have nothing prepared, you'll be glad you stored this recipe for baked three-cheese bow-tie pasta in your recipe box. It's a mac and cheese made easy, combining low-fat ricotta and cottage cheese with just enough nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano and a buttery bread crumb topping. Toss together a side salad for the adults; then, with dinner under control, get out of the kitchen and have fun with the kids.

Recipe for teriyaki turkey meatballs with cabbage and ramen noodles

Ramen gets a bad rap. Too many college dorms, too many hot plates, too many quick and cheap dinners on the run between classes. This dish of teriyaki turkey meatballs with cabbage and ramen noodles is not the packet-o'-soup food we boiled up in our frugal college days, though the noodles are the same. In this recipe, low-fat turkey meatballs take center stage, and cabbage cooked in with the noodles bathe in a sweet and salty sauce. With the exception of the meat and cabbage, all of the ingredients in this dish come straight from your pantry; you can substitute spaghetti or angel hair pasta for the ramen. At the beginning of the year, I try to eat foods that are a bit lighter, and this ramen dish fits into a healthy eating plan. Also, it's just plain good food.

Recipe for chicken pesto pasta

With apologies to Rachael Ray, anyone with a well-stocked pantry can turn out a fantastic thirty-minute meal. Pesto (made weeks ago and frozen in meal-sized portions, or even store-bought), dried pasta, slow-roasted tomatoes (also from the freezer, though sun-dried tomatoes would be fine), frozen chicken breasts, pine nuts, and good cheese:  the only thing in this chicken pesto pasta that isn't directly from my pantry is... me! This dish is a garlic lover's dream, and a make-ahead cook's dream, too. Multiply the recipe to feed a crowd; prepare it the day before, and let it come to room temperature before you serve with a green salad, crusty bread, and a nice glass of wine.

Sake (Recipe: spicy pesto soba with chicken and snow peas)

First published in August 2007, this updated pantry ingredient post features new photos, links, and a few tweaks to the recipe. The spicy pesto in this dish calls for equal amounts of basil and mint, and it's a pesto you can use in many different ways, from scrambled eggs to tomato salad.

Accidents happen.

Blue cheese, vinegar, wine, yogurt, fish sauce, yeast breads, sake.

If modern government-regulated food storage requirements of today had been in place hundreds of years ago, we'd have none of these products, because all are the result of storage mishaps.

Thank goodness for accidents, for food left out of refrigeration too long, left in a barrel for too many months, left out in the sun or in a dark cellar, or carried through the desert in hot saddle bags on a camel's back.