Some of my best meals are made with leftover components from dishes made earlier in the week.  Such is the case for today’s lunch.

I had a small package of Black Trumpet Mushrooms (my newly-annointed favorite mushroom), but it was almost past its prime, so I had to use it in today’s lunch.  Yesterday I made fresh pasta for Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta for dinner.

I have been using a recipe of these proportions: 100 g. of flour, one extra large egg, salt, and some olive oil.  The results have been excellent using about 2/3 double-zero white flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour (especially organic heirloom Turkey Red brand, purchased from Breadtopia online).  Normally, I double the recipe for the two of us.  The 100 g. version is too little, and the 200 g. version is too much, so we normally have leftover tagliatelle.  I let the remaining pasta dry on the counter overnight, and then refrigerated it, so it was ready for lunch today.  That was Tidbit #1.

My plan was just to sauté the Black Trumpets in olive oil and butter, then mix with the pasta and serve.  However, after boiling the noodles, I put some aside for Barbara’s lunch, so I had to supplement the dish for my own meal.  I also wanted to add more color (just black and white can be dramatic, but this is just a casual Saturday lunch…), so I perused the refrigerator shelves and found another leftover — the pepper sauté from Puglia, very colorful and flavorful in a complementary way — that was Tidbit #2.

The last element to add was simply a few torn fresh basil leaves.  This should not be a big deal, if you have it.  However, Barbara started her morning by making some fixings for pizza Saturday night.  Her first item was Pesto.  Normally, she would use the whole package of basil, but since I don’t eat pesto as much as she does, I asked her to save me one stalk from the package.  She grumbled, but did reserve it for me — Tidbit #3.

The finished dish was excellent.  It was delicious and brightly colored (off-white pasta and black mushrooms, with orange and red peppers, golden olive oil, and flecks of green basil), especially when paired with a 2018 Trebbiolo Rosso, La Stoppa, a robust Barbera/Bonarda blend from Emilia.  Tidbits do the job!