just some pasta

I have a book of pasta recipes that I picked up a few years ago from the bargain table at Noble Barn.  The Chief Taster scoffed at it, proclaiming all you need for pasta is pasta, cheese, and sauce.  True, I suppose, but there's a pretty wide panorama of options in that range.  Back in Oregon, when I briefly had an intern (mwahahaha), we got to talking about pasta, and I told him you can never really know all the pasta recipes, because pasta is used as a staple item in so many different cultures.  Even if you master Italian cooking (motto: Just add tomatoes!  And garlic!), there's still Japanese noodles (Just add soy sauce!), Chinese food (just add fried meat nuggets!), Thai (Just add basil and three stars of spiciness!), and even German (Spaetzle is a food!).  The book I have is limited to Italian-esque food, but I can give it credit for teaching me how to fake a decent alfredo, make a tasty pasta dish without sauce (unless bacon and olive oil count as sauce), and muddle through making some sort of filling meal with the random stuff I find in the kitchen when I'm too lazy to walk to the grocery.  Worth the six bucks.

Most of the recipe titles read more like a list of the major ingredients, which is why in late July I made:

Farfalle with chicken, broccoli, & roasted red peppers
(except I used rotini, because that's what I had in the cabinet)
4 T olive oil
5 T butter
3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken, diced (the book suggested breasts; I always use the cheaper, more nutritious, and healthier thighs)
1/4 t dried chile flakes (I probably used more.  I'm generous with the spices I like)
salt and pepper
1 lb small broccoli florets
1 lb pasta (the recipe said 10.5 oz.  I have never seen a box of pasta that size, and I don't have a kitchen scale.  A pound worked fine.  Use your favorite shape.)
6 oz jar roasted red peppers, drained and diced
9 oz/ generous 1 C chicken stock (bouillon broth worked for me)
Parmesan (of course)

Cook garlic in olive oil and butter in a large skillet until it begins to color.  add the chicken.
Do you at least have some water boiling?  You should check on that.
Add chile flakes, salt, and pepper to chicken.  When it's cooked, remove from heat.
Dump broccoli into boiling water.  Cook 2 minutes, or until tender-crisp.  Eat as much as you want for testing purposes.  There's plenty in there.
Remove broccoli to chicken pan. Cook the pasta in the broccoli water.
Add cooked pasta, bell peppers, and stock to the chicken pan.  Simmer, stirring frequently, until most liquid has been absorbed.

See what happened there?  Pasta, without any real sauce.  Neat, huh?  The Chief Taster was pretty happy with this.  I thought it needed more of something, but I never figured out what.  Still a good meal, and very easy to make.