Dorm Room Food 101

By Pete Nielson
Food Editor

This second article in my series of dorm room food will tackle some pantry necessities and another recipe. I think it may also be necessary to talk about some ways to make simple or cheap foods a little better by adding to them. The simplest cheese pizza can be made into a fantastic vegetable or margarita pizza. This can also be done with canned pasta sauces and the staple ramen soup packets. With the purchase of just a couple of fresh items, you can really improve the flavor and the quality of the packaged food. This may not be mom’s spaghetti sauce, but it can be close.

I suggest getting the best quality jarred spaghetti sauces you can afford. Start with a crap product and you are bound to get a crap end product. By now I assume you have found a brand name that you enjoy, so go ahead and stock up when they are on sale. I personally like a lot of onions and garlic in my sauce and maybe some mushrooms. I also find that a lot of jarred sauces are too light on the Italian seasoning. I would go ahead and purchase a jar of dried Italian spices or a spaghetti spice packet. I would reserve the spice packet for making a more from-scratch pasta sauce by using a can of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste instead of the jar of spaghetti sauce. I have omitted the use of burger or even chicken in this article because of the high meat prices. The jar of sauce, along with some fresh produce, pushes this recipe to the $8 mark without meats.

This recipe is going to require that you are capable of using the community kitchen at your dorm and also have a clean pot for boiling noodles and another for making your sauce. I would make the whole jar at once so that you can have leftovers for a couple of days. That is, if your roommate doesn’t get hold of them while you are at class.

The Shopping List:

1 Jar spaghetti sauce. Choose the best brand you can afford or 1 can tomato sauce and 1 can tomato paste
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1 small box button mushrooms
1 lbs spaghetti noodle
1 jar Italian seasoning, use the spaghetti spice packet if you have decided to not use a jar sauce

Method:

1. Start your water on high for the pasta. Add a little olive oil and some salt to the water for flavor.
2. Place 2 tbsp of olive oil in the other pot and slice the onion and mushrooms and begin to sauté the two ingredients over medium heat, adding some minced garlic after about three minutes. Sauté for another minute or so; do not let the garlic burn.
3. Add the jar of spaghetti sauce and simmer for 10 minutes; taste and add a tbsp of Italian spice.
4. While the sauce is simmering make sure your pasta water has come to a full boil and cook pasta to specifications on package. Spaghetti should only take a few minutes at a rolling boil. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
5. Plate your noodles and cover with pasta sauce.
6. Eat

This is just a first of many recipes to come. I want to start easy so that those of you who have not had much experience cooking can get some experience before I start making more complicated recipes. Remember to save your leftovers for a later meal, but don’t save them for weeks. You have approximately three to five days for most leftovers before they go bad. Throw away the smelly stuff in your dorm fridge, as you have limited space to deal with and the science experiments should be left for lab classes.

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