Because this is the first installment of “Cooking on Campus,” I’m going to take a few words to explain what the column is all about. It’s going to teach you to make food that’s fast, easy and tastes good. Often, like this week, you’ll be able to make the recipes without access to a kitchen. I’ll almost never suggest recipes that either require a lot of equipment or take a lot of time to prepare.

Why bother cooking? For one, you can cook yourself a tasty meal for much less than ten dollars a pop, the general going rate at Stanford dining halls. Cooking can also help you eat healthy, because you control exactly what you put into your food. But the main goal of this column is to help make cooking fun and easy, something you want to do.

My qualifications? I’m a Stanford student, I like to cook and I have spent far more time watching Food Network than is healthy or even safe. That’s it. So if I can make this stuff, you probably can too.

This week’s column focuses on pasta sauces. Pasta’s price makes it classic starving-student food. Experts debate its nutritional merit, but with protein and carbs, at least it will keep you alive. And, like beer, people have been consuming it for thousands of years. I bet people will still be eating pasta and drinking beer long after nutrition experts are wiped out in a post-apocalyptic, possibly ironic frenzy of cannibalism. I don’t know about you, but I find that comforting.

The tricky part is figuring out what to put on your pasta. Many of us have been brought up on canned tomato sauces and have grown to love them. But in case you get sick of those, this week’s column features two quick from-scratch pasta sauces: tomato and basil, and ricotta. The kicker is that neither requires any cooking, so really all you have to do is boil a pot of water.

The tomato and basil sauce is basically just a tomato salad, made ahead of time to allow the flavors to meld, tossed at the last second with cooked pasta. The pasta retains enough heat to just warm up the tomatoes. This is a great dish if you’re having friends over, because you can get everything ready ahead of time. When people start showing up, you just cook the pasta and mix it all up at the table, so your friends get a whiff of the basil and garlic aromas released by the heat.

It sounds obvious, but I think a lot of people haven’t come to grips with the fact that the food you make will taste pretty much like the stuff you put in it. That’s especially true for these recipes, because you won’t be doing any cooking to alter the flavors. So it’s worth going the extra mile to find good ingredients: flavorful extra virgin olive oil (i.e., not Safeway brand) and ripe tomatoes.

I look for two things when I shop for tomatoes. The first is softness. A ripe tomato will have a good amount of give if you squeeze it in your hand. The second is smell. When you’re at the store, take one of the tomatoes and put it right up to your nose. If it doesn’t smell like a tomato, it probably won’t taste like anything. Finally, even though I’m not entirely on board with the whole organic movement, I will buy organic tomatoes if I have a choice. They tend to be riper and taste noticeably better.

The second recipe is even simpler, just ricotta thinned out with olive oil and a little of the cooking liquid and a grind of black pepper to give it some kick. It has the same appeal as mac and cheese: rich, creamy, cheesy, easy for just about everyone to enjoy.

Ricotta, Italian for “re-cooked,” is made by heating whey (the liquid component of cheese-making) that has already yielded one batch of curds (the solid component). It has a creamy texture and mild flavor (you want the soft, fresh variety, not the hard, salted ricotta salata). It would be nice if you could find fresh ricotta, but it was still quite good when I made it with the standard plastic-packaged stuff.

Pasta with Uncooked Tomato Basil Sauce

•4 large tomatoes, chopped

•1 cup loosely packed basil leaves, chopped

•2 cloves garlic, minced

•1/2 cup olive oil

•Salt

•1 lb. Pasta

Serves 4-6

Half an hour before you want to eat, toss everything but the pasta together in a big bowl. This allows the flavors time to combine.

At mealtime, cook the pasta according to the package instructions. When done, drain the pasta completely and add it to the bowl with the tomatoes. Give it a quick stir to combine everything evenly and serve immediately.

Pasta with Ricotta Sauce

•2 cups ricotta

•1/4 cup olive oil

•Salt and freshly ground pepper

•Chopped parsley (optional)

•1 lb. pasta

Serves 4-6

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. When done, drain the pasta over a bowl, preserving the cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the cooking pot and dump in the ricotta and olive oil. Stir through and add the cooking liquid a little at a time until you get a nice saucy consistency. Add enough salt to make it taste good, and as much black pepper as you like (I think it’s best with a lot). If you feel it needs color, you could stir in some fresh parsley. If you have leftovers, they’ll still be good the next day; either cold or reheated.

If you try one of these recipes, let me know how it turns out at nsolon@stanford.edu. Or you could just invite me over for dinner.