2 posts tagged “pasta”

Making dinner for a friend tonight. I did a bit of research on good marinara sauce, as I am always trying to improve my half-ass recipes. I'm listening to sly and the family stone, so I might just call this "I Get High on You Pasta Sauce" or something...

So, first you gotta get the music right. This is kind of a sweet and mellow sauce with some good funkiness to it (but not in a bad way, like feet or even in a neutral way, like stinky cheese.) Some SOUL, is what I am saying. So you put on some good music and dice up one Vidalia sweet onion into a nice minciness. I am making it really mincey this time because usually I am lazy and let there be huge hunks of onion in everything, but lately I have been cooking for someone with a delicate constitution, and I am trying this thing called "flavoring" the dish, rather than putting the onion in the starring role.

Then I mince up about half a good head of garlic. I'll let you define what "good head" means (ar ar) based on your preferences. and throw it in with the onion and mix it all up a bit. Then I actually went canoeing and came back to heat up my nice new sautee pan (I think it's a 16" pan...really sweet!) and throw some olive oil on there and let it sit for a minute on low heat while I dashed out to my backyard and stripped some rosemary off the rosemary bush and discovered that my oregano plant is all but gone (too bad I don't like sage as much, because it's totally still bushy back there, in spite of literally complete neglect.)

I felt Meh about the oregano, but I know I have some dried oregano...so I found a tiny little shoot of it and brought that in, figuring maybe it would make a good garnish.

So I minced up the rosemary really well, and threw it in the hot oil and shmoogled it around a bit before tossing in the onion/garlic mixture. I let that all get nice and juicy and then I threw in a large can of whole peeled tomatoes in, as well as one of those little cans of tomato paste (I'm too lazy to get up and check the oz, but you should know what I'm talking about if you ever go to the grocery store.) along with a nice healthy handful of salt and some dried oregano.

I mixed that up and let it reduce for awhile, stirring occasionally (and tasting! Tasty stuff!) and then I added a nice healthy amount of red wine, stirred it a bit, and then poured the whole shebang into a crockpot and added two or three more cans of whole peeled tomatoes.

That's where I get to rest for a bit while it all simmers on high and all those yummy flavors start to mingle. In about an hour, I'm going to add about a cup of minced basil and maybe some more rosemary and then I'm going to put it on low and let it slow cook until my guest arrives tonight. I'll probably use the rest of the basil and some garlic and olive oil and these ridiculously expensive pecans I bought yesterday to make a nice pesto to use for bread or even as a garnish for the pasta sauce, which I'm going to serve over ravioli (that I bought at the store because no fucking way do I have time to MAKE ravioli...are you crazy?)

Yum. I forgot how much I love to cook. It really brings me back up.

Oh, PS - My kitchen smells totally divine!

Oh! PS PS!!!! Don't forget to throw in a little sugar, baby! I sometimes use maple syrup instead if I want a smokier flavor, but don't tell me I told you that, because it's a secret!

Lots of yummy spring bounty at the supermarket today. I picked up some asparagus and some nice, fresh basil. This dish is kind of a variation on a standard theme with me, but for those who are tired of tomato sauce but don't want to break out the blender for pesto, here you go:

Put a pot of water on to boil.

cut up half a red onion, and mush some garlic...like 3-5 cloves, depending on if you are planning to be around humans who don't like garlic breath while or shortly after eating. (But remember, garlic keeps mosquitos away!)

Saute the above in some olive oil, and after the onions are soft, throw in a couple handsful of fresh basil with a handful of crushed walnuts (pecans would work, too...I'm thinking almonds might, as well. Oh, and if you like that loathsome creature known as the pine nut - more power to you. saute all of that for a bit, but don't overdo it. More cooking happens later, so if you need to turn it off, do so.

When the water boils, toss a bunch of asparagus, leave in for about a minute to blanch, then drain and toss the blanched asparagus in with the onion/garlic/basil/walnut mixture. Stir it up, then turn off heat and cover.

You can reuse the asparagus water to boil up some pasta (I'm feeling like some vermicelli today). I have this idea that using the water that boiled the veggies preserves some of the vitamins in with the pasta, but I'm probably wrong. Still, it seems like a good idea, and you waste less water.

Once the verm is done, drain it, rinse it, then toss it with the veg/un-pesto mixture over high heat for about a minute.

Top with a sprinking of parm & garnish with some basil and maybe some pistachios or walnuts.

yuuuuuuu-uhhhh-uuuhhhhhh-fucking-UM!

(oh...you need to add salt & fresh ground pepper, too)