Read The Minimalist Cooks Dinner for Free Online Page A

cloves, peeled
Salt
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano or other hard sheep’s-milk cheese or Parmigiano-Reggiano
½ cup extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 medium potatoes (about ½ pound), peeled and cut into
½-inch cubes
1 pound trenette or linguine
½ pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
Begin heating a large pot of water for the potatoes and pasta. Combine the basil, garlic, salt to taste, and cheese in a blender or food processor; pulse until roughly chopped. Add ½ cup oil in a steady stream, and continue to blend until the mixture is fairly creamy adding a little more oil or some water, if necessary. Add the pine nuts, and pulse a few times to chop them into the sauce.
Salt the boiling water. Add the potatoes and stir; cook for 3 minutes, then add the pasta, and cook as usual, stirring frequently about 10 minutes in all. When the pasta is about half done—the strands will bend but are not yet tender—add the green beans.
When the pasta is done, the potatoes and beans should be tender. Drain the pasta and vegetables, toss with pesto and more salt or olive oil, if you like, and serve.
WINE
Beaujolais, Chianti, or another light, fruity red
SERVE WITH
Assuming it’s summer, Raw Beet Salad or Simple Green Salad
    Keys To SUCCESS
    IF YOU START the potatoes and pasta simultaneously, then add the green beans about halfway through cooking, they will all be finished at the same time and can be drained and tossed with the sauce in a snap. This technique may sound imprecise, but it works.
    TO PREVENT the potatoes from falling apart, use a waxy variety, such as Red Bliss, or at least a not-especially-starchy all-purpose variety, like Yukon gold.
    ANY KIND of green beans will work, although thinner beans, like delicate, flavorful haricots verts, should be added a minute or two later than common green beans.
    With MINIMAL Effort
    |    Make the pesto without the cheese or nuts if you like.
    |    Make the dish extra-rich by stirring in a bit of softened butter instead of olive oil at the end.
     

Linguine with
Tomato-Anchovy
Sauce
    TIME: 30 minutes
    MAKES: 3 main-course to 6 first-course servings
    Few things are simpler than a quick tomato sauce over pasta, but as an unending diet it can become somewhat tiresome. Here it’s completely jazzed by the addition of a hefty amount of garlic and a few anchovies. The transformation is as easy as it is remarkable.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 to 6 anchovy fillets, with some of their oil
One 28-ounce can tomatoes, crushed or chopped and drained of their juice
1 pound linguine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Begin heating a large pot of water for the pasta. Pour the oil in a deep skillet, turn the heat to medium, and heat for a minute. Add the garlic and the anchovies. When the garlic sizzles and the anchovies break up, add the tomatoes.
Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes saucy, about 15 minutes.
Salt the pasta water and cook the pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the pasta, toss it with the sauce, and serve.
WINE
Chianti or any spirited red
SERVE WITH
60-Minute Bread or good store-bought bread
    Keys To SUCCESS
    CANNED ANCHOVIES —packed in olive oil—are the easiest to use here. Salted anchovies, if you have them, are fine also, but you must mince them first (after cleaning them, of course, which you do under running water, stripping the meat from the skeleton).
    With MINIMAL Effort
    |    This dish doesn’t need cheese; but if you’re going to use it, Pecorino Romano is best.
    |    You can, of course, omit the anchovies and make a milder sauce. To tame it even further, substitute ½ cup chopped onion for the garlic. If you want to go in the other direction, add a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes, or cook a dried chile or two with the garlic.
    |    Garnish