This is what you make when...

... you have soccer and work on the brain and all you want to do is relax.

It was a Sunday night, and I was wiped out from watching Brazil beat Cote d'Ivoire, complete with live vuvuzela! (They sound much better when there are fewer of them. The vuvuzela is definitely a case of less is more.) Lounging on the couch, I came up with an idea for a meal I've never cooked before. It was fresh, it was inventive, it was...labor intensive.

So what's a lazy cook to do?
This:It's whole wheat pasta tossed with pan-roasted cherry tomatoes from the market, eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Pan-roasted tomatoes sound fancy, but are super simple. All you do is saute some garlic in olive oil, then add the tomatoes. Stew them over a fairly low heat until they start to release their juices. Maybe one or two will burst, but you want them to remain fairly intact. Add some crushed red pepper and fresh basil towards the end of cooking, and there you have it!

Even Meadow the gourmand cat wanted some!