Spaghetti, Angel Hair, or Linguini
Fresh garlic cloves or Trader Joe’s frozen garlic cubes
Extra-virgin olive oil
Red pepper flakes

If you always have these four items in your pantry – you always have dinner ready in less than 10 minutes!  Seriously, you can use only those four ingredients for a meal or add in whatever you have on hand.

Some of the things I’ve added to this standby dish?

For protein; cooked shrimp, chicken, bacon, scallops, or slivers of leftover pork or beef.

Generally, I keep it vegetarian, in which case, anything I have in my fridge goes in; green beans, asparagus, mushrooms, leftover caramelized onions, herbs, snow peas, sugar snap peas, leftover cooked squash, sliced summer squash, arugula, or spinach.

Honestly, the list is endless. For dinner last night, I only added sliced Belgium endive and cherry tomato halves.

This is the go-to meal when the goal is to get dinner onto the table before anyone has a chance to whine, “When are we eating, I’m starving!”

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