Quick dinner pastas

We're back in the grind. Vacation is over meaning it's back to cooking daily and the excuse of being lazy is no longer plausible. I was in a funk the last month. I had no energy or creativity to come up with new ideas so I stuck to what I knew and made Filipino food after Filipino food. It's comforting, it's home, it's what I know, but my creative juices weren't flowing.

I've had a lot of coffee the past 2 days. It's a good sign, really. It means I'm back to making quick meals.

This was my quick less than 20 minutes dinner.

Calamari Linguine

Ingredients:
2 cups worth sliced calamari (I just buy the frozen kind)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic, minced (or I used Tastefully Simple's garlic garlic)
1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, or more if you want it hotter
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 meyer lemon, zested and juiced
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
salt to taste
1 package linguine, cooked according to directions, 2 cups of cooking liquid reserved

Cook your pasta according to directions. But seriously, you can cook your pasta while you're making the "sauce" because they'll be done in about the same amount of time.

In a sautee pan heated to medium heat, add your red chili pepper flakes, lemon zest and garlic. Lightly sautee for about a minute, then add your calamari plus 2 teaspoons of salt. I rinse mine first before I add it, Make sure you drain most of the water before you add it. Then add the juice of the lemon and continue cooking until you see the edges of the calamari curl a little, about 2-4 minutes. You don't want to overcook it because calamari tends to get tough. I used garlic garlic which I got from a party I went to, but fresh garlic works.

Add the pasta once the calamari is cooked. Follow with the cheese then combine everything together. Adjust your salt if it needed and if the pasta seems dry, add 1 cup at a time of pasta water. Finish it off with the cilantro, serve right away.