Off the shelf cuisine does not include laundry in the microwave

I like sardines. There, I said it.

Apparently, some people have a problem with that. Back in my police beat reporter days, mid-1990s, one of my favorite on-the-go meals was a microwaveable black bean soup. I opened the top, poured in the water. I opened a can of sardines packed in olive oil and scraped the sardines into the soup, threw it in the microwave.

I thought this was delicious ... still do. But I had to microwave this concoction in the news room and therein lay the problem. After several months -- it might have been a year or more -- of keeping this on my menu, the night shift chief copy editor got up one day and loudly asked if I was drying my socks in the microwave.

It had been raining. I did come in wet. But I had not dried my socks in the microwave and we got to the point of his complaint. He didn't like the smell of sardines coming out of the microwave. I would have dismissed him right then and there, but he got a few "amens!" from the peanut gallery.

So, in the interest of good workplace relations, I reluctantly dropped black bean soup with sardines from my repertoire. But I haven't given up on sardines.


Seafood, sausage and spicy seasonings are a popular combination in some Cajun dishes. That's where I'm trying to steer with this dish. The basic idea being how to throw together something of ingredients that are handy in a pinch.

This isn't a traditional dish. I'll call this one Cajun Pasta.

What tends to happen in a kitchen. You buy dry or canned good because they keep a long time and you don't have to worry about them spoiling. But they tend to stack up over time and your cupboard gets full. Okay, I'm not saying that happens to ME, but I've seen it happen.

So, I'm driving home. I want pasta. But I want something kind of Cajun. Hmm? A hybrid Cajun-Italian dish.  How am I going to pull this off?

Going through the cupboard, I find a bag of No Yolks Cholesterol Free Egg White Pasta and a can of sardines packed in olive oil. In the fridge is some beef smoked sausage and a tomato-based pasta sauce in a jar.

This is too easy! Boil the noodles with a little salt. Chop the beef sausage real fine -- you want small bits -- grill it. Put the pasta sauce in a bowl with the sardines and microwave. Drain your pasta, throw it on a dish.

Stir the sausage into the sauce and sardines and spread this over the pasta. Sprinkle ground black pepper and crushed red pepper liberally (liberally! Trust me; it's the seafood-sausage mix with black and red peppers that makes this ala Cajun).
And serve!

Cajun Pasta anyone?

Buen provecho!