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Why I was thinking about Half Homemade tonight
So I needed a really fast, everyone-is-tired-and-starving kind of supper tonight.
I made pasta with sauce, or, more accurately, Classico and I made pasta with sauce.
There are a lot of things I buy intending to adulterate them extensively before serving. Pasta sauce is a big one.
Making red sauce from scratch is possibly worth it if you have a huge tomato patch or a bushel from the market, or if you're an absolute wizard at Italian spicing, or if your honour is involved, but I suspect most people start a step or two along (and when they DO make sauce from scratch, make some to freeze and adulterate later).
Sometimes I start with plain tinned diced tomatoes.
More often, I start with spiced tinned diced tomatoes.
Mostly, I start with a jar of pasta sauce.
Tonight I started with a bottle of Classico Vodka and I:
1) Browned 2 mild Italian sausages and a chicken breast in a deepish frying pan,
2) Dumped the sauce over them,
3) Added 2 Tablespoons of diced dehydrated garlic, a heaping Tablespoon of Mexican oregano, sniffed it a bit, added a good pinch of adobo pepper and a good pinch of chipotle, tasted it, and added a good pinch of black pepper,
4) Added in about a cup of frozen chopped spinach,
5) Let it simmer while the noodles cooked, and served it with grated parmesan on top, garlic bread (split baguette, buttered and with more dehydrated garlic sprinkled on, then 15 minutes in a 350 F oven) on the side, and chopped tomato and cucumber salad heavily sprinkled with Penzey's Mural of Flavour.
It took about 30 minutes all in, and was good.
I made pasta with sauce, or, more accurately, Classico and I made pasta with sauce.
There are a lot of things I buy intending to adulterate them extensively before serving. Pasta sauce is a big one.
Making red sauce from scratch is possibly worth it if you have a huge tomato patch or a bushel from the market, or if you're an absolute wizard at Italian spicing, or if your honour is involved, but I suspect most people start a step or two along (and when they DO make sauce from scratch, make some to freeze and adulterate later).
Sometimes I start with plain tinned diced tomatoes.
More often, I start with spiced tinned diced tomatoes.
Mostly, I start with a jar of pasta sauce.
Tonight I started with a bottle of Classico Vodka and I:
1) Browned 2 mild Italian sausages and a chicken breast in a deepish frying pan,
2) Dumped the sauce over them,
3) Added 2 Tablespoons of diced dehydrated garlic, a heaping Tablespoon of Mexican oregano, sniffed it a bit, added a good pinch of adobo pepper and a good pinch of chipotle, tasted it, and added a good pinch of black pepper,
4) Added in about a cup of frozen chopped spinach,
5) Let it simmer while the noodles cooked, and served it with grated parmesan on top, garlic bread (split baguette, buttered and with more dehydrated garlic sprinkled on, then 15 minutes in a 350 F oven) on the side, and chopped tomato and cucumber salad heavily sprinkled with Penzey's Mural of Flavour.
It took about 30 minutes all in, and was good.