Spring Pasta e Fagioli - Cheaters and Canners May Apply

A fresh and preserved party for everyone on the block

There are cans and there are cans.

I was raised on “canned vegetables,” and they largely made me gag. My mother said I would think twice if I was starving, but I countered that even starving people get nauseous too. Smack!

I know many of you joined me in these nightly battles.

Pasta e Fagioli, and why not throw in a bunch of fresh Swiss chard from Andy.

Canned peas, canned spinach, canned asparagus? C’mon, they were the THE WORST. They were all the color of a faded green lunatic asylum.

Times changed and so did the frozen aisle. We had a renaissance of fresh food and growing your own. I learned to cook outside of Campbells and General Mills.

But even as I admired the results of mastering a day-long homemade recipe in my kitchen, I often said at the end of it, isn’t there a shortcut?

Can’t I cheat just a little and get away with it? I guess Mom’s discipline didn’t stick.