You can seriously make a pasta dish out of anything

This is a reassuring though that should follow you home after work and smack you in the face before you decide to melt into your couch and eat a sleeve of crackers for dinner.
I mean, with all seriousness, that you can probably put the crackers into a pasta dish and that will be just dandy.
What I am trying to say is, if you have a box of spaghetti or penne or whatever, and a thing or two in your fridge or pantry (or couch cushions, who am I to assume you follow stereotypical food storage guidelines? They are just guidelines, after all, and you're a creative spirit.)-- then you can have a proper, self-respecting dinner.

Please see Figure A:

Fig. A

The scene was as such: I was tired, I was hungry, the fridge looked sparse. But I did have a stalk of young garlic and penne from the day before. And lo:

The "recipe" is as follows:

1 young garlic shoot

1 serving of penne (or whatever other dry, starchy thing you can boil to doneness)

olive oil

salt

pinch of red pepper flakes

Trim the garlic shoot of tough leaves, then slice into thin rounds (the stalk and the bulb). Heat the olive oil in a pan that will be large enough to accomodate the penne, then throw in the garlic and let sizzle until fragrant. I let mine crisp a little. Add the red pepper flakes, cooked penne and salt to taste. Stir until penne is heated through. Put it in a bowl and dribble some additional olive oil over it.

Optional: Snap a picture and send it to your best friend because sometimes the only way you two communicate is food-related picture messages. She will reply with a shot of garlic stalks just picked from her garden, they will be green and a little bit purple, and they will be beautiful.