We had some leftover sausages and plums, except Iris had eaten all the plums, and it was only a sausage and a half, not enough for all of us. So I looked in the pasta drawer and found it dangerously low: spaghetti, fettucine, vermicelli, lasagna, and elbow macaroni. I’m not even sure why we have vermicelli, since I don’t even like it.

Trader Joe’s mac and cheese is a lunchtime staple here, especially on farmers market day, when Iris usually demands broccoli and we make mac and broc. Today, though, I grabbed the box of Barilla elbows (which have ridges and are the best elbows I know of), boiled it up, and chopped up the sausage into bite-sized pieces. I warmed the sausage with the remaining wine-plum sauce and used it to sauce the noodles. I threw in a handful of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and a little olive oil.

It was delicious, of course, and now I can’t wait to have more leftover sausages and fruit so I can make it again.