bachelor chow

It has been ages since I’ve blogged, and at least one of my four subscribers reminds me of this regularly. So, here goes. I’ve come home pretty late from work, and I’m pretty uninspired when it comes to assembling some sort of dinner. After staring at the fridge fruitlessly for a while, I’m struck by an inspiration of sorts. I’ll make bachelor chow.

Now, I have no idea what is in the original bachelor chow (nor do I want to know), but my bachelor chow is just the name I’ve given to the worst thing that I cook for myself on purpose. So, here is the basic recipe:

Makes one serving:

3-4 oz. pasta, preferably penne, but anything will suffice. 1/4 jar pasta sauce, any tomato-based variety. Shredded cheese. I use Sargento’s 4-cheese mexican.

1. Cook the pasta. You can salt the water, but I’ve been running periodic experiments with not salting the water, and so far, I can’t really tell the difference. It is even less important with this recipe, since taste is clearly not high on the agenda.
2. Prior to completely cooking the pasta through, drain the pasta. Overcooking it is OK, undercooking it sucks, though, so err to the side of too long. Deposit the pasta into a microwave-safe plate or bowl. You know, the dish you are going to serve this on.
3. Optionally stir in a little bit of olive oil and salt (preferably kosher or sea salt). You can stop right here and have a pretty good dish, even if it is nutritionally unbalanced. It is only going to get worse from here.
4. Pour the (cold) pasta sauce over the pasta. Do not stir it in, just let it sit on top.
5. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Again, no stirring.
6. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, until the cheese has melted.
7. Enjoy. Or, at least, Tolerate.

This recipe violates almost every thing I’ve learned about cooking, but it takes me back to my just-out-of-college days when I was equally as lazy and less polluted by cookbooks, Cooks Illustrated, and Food Network.