Super fast tomato pasta deliciousness

The other night I was home by myself with very limited groceries. I was hungry (surprise!) and craving something fantastic, but didn't want to change out of my sweatpants, so I pulled together a few ingredients that most people have on hand for a delicious and (kinda) nutritious meal*. Check it out (and note that this made 2 generous servings - you could easily double or triple if you have to):

Super Fast Tomato Pasta Deliciousness

• 1 cup dry white wine (but you could also use chicken broth)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 can diced tomatoes (you could also use fresh, may take longer to cook though)
• dried herbs
• salt, pepper, sugar
• 2 small shallots or 1/2 a medium onions (optional)
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 box of pasta
• parmesan cheese

 I had shallots leftover from my heart-pounding, head-spinning, feet-sweeping Risotto (who are you calling dramatic???) that I made the other night, but you could easily use regular onion. Or just omit it. But I diced up the shallots and the garlic, sauteed them with the butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan until they were very tender. Then I stirred in the wine and let it cook down until it was reduced by half. I added the tomatoes and the herbs (I used basil, oregano and - of course - a couple dashes of Pizza and Pasta Magic...because it was the right thing to do) and let it all cook for about 20 minutes, stirring and tasting occasionally. This is when I also added the salt, pepper and about 1-2 Tablespoons of white sugar. Meanwhile, I cooked my pasta (I used whole wheat Penne but you could use anything) according to the package. When it was all done I tossed the pasta and sauce together (but only what I was going to eat that night - the rest I refrigerated separately so that the pasta doesn't soak up all the sauce), and then gave it a generous sprinkling of parm cheese. Viola! Add a glass of wine and a small salad for a complete meal. Simple, fast and delicious! It was even better the next day!
* you could also add things you had on hand such as mushrooms or artichokes, or you could add meat to make it more hearty. Whatever floats your boat!

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