Meet Mike Diago, Our Newest Staff Writer

For my first assignment, I’m sharing four recipes that can be made on weeknights without disrupting the natural order of things. I rely on these often since I work all day as a high school social worker. Usually, I can pick up the kids and get home by 5:30 p.m. and then the dinner rush is on. I pass my six-year-old his tablet and sit my baby in his chair where he can suck on his fist and watch me cook.

A pot of salted water usually goes on the stovetop before I even know what I’m cooking: I cover it, turn the knob until the flame bursts, and then open the fridge and start to think of what to do with it. On one recent evening, I noticed a block of 24-month Parmigiano Reggiano and decided to make a dish I’ve made a thousand times. I shouted, “Alexa, play the Isley Brothers,” so I could get into a rhythm while I grated, then plucked a handful of sage leaves and threw them into a pan with some butter, boiled linguini until almost al dente, and dragged it, dripping with pasta water, into the butter and sage mixture with tongs before stirring in the mound of fine grated cheese to complete the creamy dish — done in under twenty minutes. My wife got home and picked up the baby as he started crying. I plated the pasta, removing all of the green bits from the six-year-old’s, and flung the shallow bowls onto the table exactly at our set dinnertime — 6 p.m.