On the Table: Pasta with Cabbage and Peanut Sauce

Yesterday was really busy, so I took the opportunity to make a really easy and fast dinner, and work on cleaning out the fridge at the same time.  It turned into somewhat of a multi-cultural pasta dish, with cabbage, peanut sauce (out of a bottle - guilty!), and sriracha.  Yum!  Pasta and rice are two staples that I always keep on hand, because they are incredibly flexible - they can be combined with almost any leftover ingredients to make a complete meal! 

Put on a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. 

Cut half a head of green cabbage into 1/4ths (make three cuts perpendicular to the root, but don't cut through the root, so the cabbage stays together).  Thinly slice the cabbage (horizontal to the root).  The pieces of cabbage should about the size of a piece of penne.

Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil.  When the oil gets hot, add in the cabbage.  

(By this point, the pasta water is probably boiling - go ahead and prepare the pasta according to the package directions.  I used penne, which was just about the same size as the pieces of cabbage, but you could use any shape you want.)  Cook, stirring occassionally, until the cabbage is tender.  You can't see it very well in the picture above, but you actually want the cabbage to brown a little around the edges.  As the cabbage is cooking, add in some of the peanut sauce.  I used this kind (it's fantastic!):

Also add in a healthy squeeze of sriracha.  Taste and adjust the level of seasoning - I added peanut sauce about three times until I felt there was enough.  You also may need to add salt, but remember that the peanut sauce probably has a lot of salt in it, so adjust the amount of peanut sauce first.  When the pasta is finished cooking, add it right into the pan.  I didn't even bother with a collander - I just used a spider/skimmer to scoop the pasta right into the pan.  Add some of that lovely starchy pasta water to the pan as well to add some nice creaminess to the sauce.

Enjoy!