Soup From a Can

A lot has happened in the last week and a half. Most notably: I have a job!!!!!! I start on Monday (a 6 week temporary position, however there is much hope that it turns into a permanent position), and I'm taking over some duties as the Marketing Coordinator for Glumac. Since the good news happened yesterday, I've been doing some celebrating on my own: I've finished three books, enjoyed myself at a couple of happy hours, had breakfast with a friend, and cooked by far one of the most interesting meals of my life. However, it's that exact meal that I feel is appropriate to send me off into my new future.

It's been raining the past couple of days. After such sunny, summery weather it's easy to just want to stay inside and cuddle up with a book (hence why I finished three, trust me this never happens!) and make some sort of comfort food. A couple days ago, I made a vegetarian stroganoff (recipe coming soon!), this morning my friend Erin and I had a "champagne breakfast" complete with mimosa and a scramble at Blue Pig, and just now my friend Sarah and I have polished off an accidental pot of "Spaghetti-O's".

Let me repeat myself, we did not intend for this to happen. Accident.

Sarah likes Tomato soup, and ever since last night at the happy hour at Eastburn, where I watched a girl scarfing down tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich - I've been craving it. Sarah is the queen of comfort food, so this afternoon she e-mailed me with the grand idea of Tomato soup for dinner, and I would make the grilled cheese. Well, since she's on a diet (and I had too much dairy for the day) we skipped on the grilled cheese part, and by the time she showed up in my kitchen we had three small cans of tomato soup, saltine crackers....and that was it.

This girl and I go way back to our freshman year of college where we quickly found out what it means to be improvisational gastronomes: spicing up our pizza with herbs and different types of vegetables, seeing just how far we could take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I believe one time we made a salsa from canned tomatoes. Some of it was good enough to eat, there were times when we really wished that the macaroni and cheese had stayed macaroni and just cheese, but we were proud of our creations and our quick thinking.

As Sarah was pouring soy milk into the steaming pot of tomato soup, I was searching around my fridge for any possible pairings other than just saltine crackers. Leftover from my vegetarian stroganoff was a bowl of cooked yet naked pasta, still perfectly al dente and sitting right in front of me. Maybe it was the book from culinary genius/still curmudgeonous author Anthony Bourdain that I had just finished that made me do it: but I heated the bowl up and threw the pasta into the tomato mix, not realizing until halfway finished that I was in fact - making spaghetti'o's. Why waste a perfectly good bowl of pasta on just olive oil and garlic anyways? This might be more fun. Cheap, ridiculous, but fun. After a dusting of Parmesiano Reggiano (Ok, so I splurge on my cheeses please give me a break, I'm about to be employed), a couple turns of fresh pepper, some finishing salt, and a kick of cayenne - we called it good and sat down with steaming bowls of our version of Spaghetti'O's. Or Poor Man's Spaghetti. Or whatever.

I have eaten at several notable restaurants, tasted everything from Osso Bucco at the Veritable Quandary, to the perfect squash puree at Andina, to a gorgeous cut of Toro Tuna anyone could ask for at Murata's. I have eaten fresh pasta, Pig that was freshly killed and prepared, and dark greens from farmer's markets. I have had the joy of eating croissants that had just come out of the oven at St. Honore, and gotten giddy over the "crack" of the carmelized layer of Creme Brulee and tasted the ocean from oysters with a small drop of lemon juice.

Sitting on my couch on the eve of a new job and a new opportunity that would give me that same freedom to taste all that I previously mentioned again, I transcended into the very simple pleasure of eating a very simple meal on a really tight budget. The tomato soup was the perfect consistency with the right amount of creaminess, and the pasta had added a little bit of a thickening factor while still maintaining it's shape and doneness. The finishing salt and cayenne had added just the right amount of flavor needed to brighten the soup, and the dusting of cheese made it that much more special. It wasn't overly salty, it wasn't bland, it wasn't a congealed mess. I'm really not kidding you, Sarah and I kinda hit this one out of the park. Call it what you may, but I couldn't have asked for a better cheap meal on one of the last days of being unemployed. It was a stroke of luck and timing on both our parts to come up with something this simple, stupid, and good. I could try putting down the recipe, but try making this (if you even want to) on your own.