Spaghetti Sauce

Check out this video of the sauce cooking

Alright, so, this JoeSoBakery weblog is going to have to include cooking as well as baking.  I mean, I have enough of these god forsaken blogs already, I'm not adding another one.  But I want to keep track of recipes that I cook (not just things I bake), particularly staples and recipes I want to use again and again. I want to both master the basics to the point where I have a great traditional whatever-it-is-I'm-making plus gain the skill to spin off my own versions to suit different tastes or handle various pantry situations (i.e., make do with what's on hand).

ingredients

On this rainy Friday night I'll make a spaghetti sauce, which is definitely something I need to master.

I've made tomato based sauce before, but never anything that came out that well.  I just want to start with a basic, traditional spaghetti sauce, and then work on adding a little spice to it.

1. Heat 2 T olive oil in large saucepan. Add:

2 small onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic

2. Cook till tender, 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 2-3 hours:

2 can tomato paste + 1 can water

1/4 C. beer or wine

4-8 small tomatoes, or canned (24 oz.)

sugar

basil, oregano, 2 bay leaves

Try: 

• chopped green pepper
• spicy: maybe a chile pepper or red pepper flakes, or salsa verde
• add cooked gimme lean at the end
• cream cheese???

Ok I'm about to eat this... over spaghetti with goat cheese on top...

The sauce has a very nice thickness.  There could be a little more liquid to soak the noodles, but the viscosity is overall nice.  The flavor is good.  It's actually  very good.  It is, however, too spicy.  That's because I used the canned salsa verde and some green chile pepper -- because I didn't have enough tomatoes.  I had a little bit of ketchup to add to counter balance the spiciness.  Meat would be great in this sauce. Or even gimme lean -- that's a good idea!  I actually like the goat cheese.  When I take a bite of the pasta that has a chunk of the goat cheese, it gets really creamy and gooey.  Could I use cream or maybe cream cheese?  To give it a nice creamy cheesiness?!  You know, it's actually not even too spicy.  I think if I skipped the green chili pepper and just used some of the salsa verde it would work out well.

Next time:  Just 1 bay leaf -- don't use anything spicy

Check out this demo (on the left) and video of the sauce cooking (right).

viscosity demo :-)

Today's cooking playlist featured Talvin Singh, 50 Cent, Nate Dogg, Non Phixion, Squarepusher, Betty Lavette, Tommy McCook, and Arrested Development, in that order.