Simple pasta dinner

At the moment thanks to rent, I am pretty low on funds.  Not an unusual circumstance for most of you I'm sure.  Despite my lack of cash, I can still eat well for cheap.  Here is a simple recipe that uses some items that most of us already have in our pantries.  I only had to spend about $6 on the ingredients I didn't have.  This is a recipe I like to make because it's cheap, healthy, and it makes enough food to feed me and Elliott for two days.  These are important things when you're a poor bum like me!

What you need:

1 pint grape tomatoes
5-6 oz log of plain goat cheese
1 bunch basil
A handful of arugula
1 box penne, or rigatoni

Prep:

Put a big pot of water on to boil, and salt it well.  While the water is boiling, slice up the grape tomatoes like this:

Put your sliced tomatoes in a bowl, and reserve.  Rinse the basil well, and pull off 8-10 nice-sized leaves.  Stack leaves 3 at a time, and roll into a cigar shape.  Slice the rolled basil the short way to create nice little strips.  Toss your prepared basil in the bowl with the tomatoes.  Roughly chop your arugula and, you guessed it, put it in the bowl as well.  

Cook the pasta to desired tenderness, and drain very well.  Return the pasta to the pot. 

It's time for cheese.  Cut the goat cheese log into smaller pieces, and carefully fold it into the hot pasta.  Make sure to coat it well.  Sometimes I add a little olive oil to thin the cheese.  You can also turn the heat on VERY low to help melt the cheese.  Shut off the heat when everything melts down, and there are no large lumps left.  Dump in your bowl of vegetables, and carefully fold them into the pasta.  There should be enough heat left to wilt the greens just a bit.  

That's it!  You're done, and it wasn't difficult.  It's also fresh and delicious.

Enjoy!