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Pasta.
I used to love pasta. At least, I believed i did?
I used to love eating spaghetti messily - which I still get - and I loved the tomato sauce from powder (because I didn't know better) and I loved loved loved bits of cheese in it - never mozzarella, but this yellow kiddie cheese. Any bit of cheese was worth it all, it made the dish. And I'd cook the sauce in this small pot myself when I wanted it. My mom had this notion of adding the cheese to the sauce as you cooked it, idek why! But she allowed me to do it on the plate. It was never, or almost never, grated cheese! It was slices of cheese and we had to cut it into pieces with out hands, piece by piece, and place the pieced around the dish on our plate - not even just stick a slice on there or in there and let it melt. The cheese and sauce were PERFECT, I say! PERFECT :) :) :) :)
My mother was not opposed adding mushrooms to this. Which as everything that's wrong with this country. Or something. She once suggested I made sauce out of the two powder bags we had - tomato and mushroom!?! I tell ya. Or I am pretty sure she'd ever added canned sliced mushrooms to that tomato sauce that I loved! What what what what no!
When I was a bit older, I loved mushroom Alfredo. Or spinach, any interesting thing.
I wanted to taste black spaghetti for so long, and the green and red types, but I was a vegetarian, so no black - and the others were not available, or it turned out they tasted just the same as ever?
I found this glorious sauce recipe that was finely chopped fresh tomatoes, a lot a lot of fresh herbs, and iinm plenty of lemon juice and some very fine onion.
Though M claimed it was no longer pasta/spaghetti, truly, because it was not so much a sauce as it was food on its own.
One time, I didn't want the sauce I made, don't remember why, so I just seasoned mine with a ton of cumin, some vegetable oil and salt, and it was so so good. One time, I made pasta, and after I gave my brother half, the rest fell to the floor. My brother wouldn't share with my sister and I, and there weren't even ingredients for the sort I liked left.
Pasta is the stuff that every "normal" place has for vegetarians/vegans instead of something good. It is never ok.
~
M loved/loves rose' sauce - tomato sauce with a touch of cream.
I spent literally years trying to perfec a sauce that she'd like, to meet her very exacting needs on this ....
Recipe(ish):
A lot of tomato puree, a lot of oregano, some basil.
Start by frying onions - they have to be in big pieces, no puny finely cut onions.
A lot a lot of onions, preferably the golden kind, but since the sauce mostly hides the purple of the others - those can do too.
Add some garlic - preferably the dry, roughly ground type. Never ever powder ever ever! (this last one is a rule of mine in general!)
Add a cup of single cream (pref vegan), or - I've tried this with a few cups of milk and about an hour (?) (more?) reducing it - that worked too, and let it simmer gently for a bit (or just move on)
Add three cups of tomato puree, maybe 2/3 cup of dried oregano, a spoon of dried basil, or if you're out of those, hyssop or other green things will probably do.
Cook for 10-20 minutes (if there is no liquid, add very little water just so it doesn't burn)
Turn off the heat, add another cup or so of tomato puree, a lot of olive or vegetable oil, salt to taste, adjust seasoning (you'll probably want more garlic). Carefully adjust sourness with maybe one spoon of rich brown sugar (or molasses or honey - it has to be something that has its own flavor, not just sweet, or the whole dish goes off balance. Also, this needs to be added the way you'd salt to a chocolate dish - only to balance and bring out the existing flavors, putting too much in will make it a disgusting tomato desert - don't do it!)
Serve on whole grain wheat spaghetti (which has a touch of sweetness itself, and tends to be less soggy )
MUST be served with salt and cucumbers pickled in brine, not vinegar.
Pref with Parmesan or plain gouda style cheese.
Pref with light beer or red wine.
~
She really loved it, but then it was almost impossible to make it *just right*, there was always *something* :(
~
Anyway - for my own tastes - I don't like pasta anymore. I am not sure why people enjoy pasta, and must hold backk from just assuming that like me, pasta for them is an excuse for sauce. I love many sorts of sauces. I'd put them of veggies or legume or grains or potatoes or tofu or friggin eat it with a spoon, why why why why stick it on an entire plate of flavorless pointless nullness? Why ? Why? Spaghetti I kinda still get because it is fun to eat, and the Disney thing and childhood memories - but really, wouldn't you prefer just the same stuff without spaghetti in it? All the flavor, without this stuff that at the best times it mostly texture, and at bad times is not even that? Not in a good way that, that is - it gets doughy or melts or gets sticky, or worst, oily, this lunchroom food you know in gonna taste gross and then gonna make you feel gross, and without even feeling pleased and nourished and good and happy!
I have a friend who doesn't like a lot of flavor. She likes pasta but no sauce.
So far we have managed to overcome this and remain friends.
At least we can agree on heart of palm.
( Previous/future days )
I used to love pasta. At least, I believed i did?
I used to love eating spaghetti messily - which I still get - and I loved the tomato sauce from powder (because I didn't know better) and I loved loved loved bits of cheese in it - never mozzarella, but this yellow kiddie cheese. Any bit of cheese was worth it all, it made the dish. And I'd cook the sauce in this small pot myself when I wanted it. My mom had this notion of adding the cheese to the sauce as you cooked it, idek why! But she allowed me to do it on the plate. It was never, or almost never, grated cheese! It was slices of cheese and we had to cut it into pieces with out hands, piece by piece, and place the pieced around the dish on our plate - not even just stick a slice on there or in there and let it melt. The cheese and sauce were PERFECT, I say! PERFECT :) :) :) :)
My mother was not opposed adding mushrooms to this. Which as everything that's wrong with this country. Or something. She once suggested I made sauce out of the two powder bags we had - tomato and mushroom!?! I tell ya. Or I am pretty sure she'd ever added canned sliced mushrooms to that tomato sauce that I loved! What what what what no!
When I was a bit older, I loved mushroom Alfredo. Or spinach, any interesting thing.
I wanted to taste black spaghetti for so long, and the green and red types, but I was a vegetarian, so no black - and the others were not available, or it turned out they tasted just the same as ever?
I found this glorious sauce recipe that was finely chopped fresh tomatoes, a lot a lot of fresh herbs, and iinm plenty of lemon juice and some very fine onion.
Though M claimed it was no longer pasta/spaghetti, truly, because it was not so much a sauce as it was food on its own.
One time, I didn't want the sauce I made, don't remember why, so I just seasoned mine with a ton of cumin, some vegetable oil and salt, and it was so so good. One time, I made pasta, and after I gave my brother half, the rest fell to the floor. My brother wouldn't share with my sister and I, and there weren't even ingredients for the sort I liked left.
Pasta is the stuff that every "normal" place has for vegetarians/vegans instead of something good. It is never ok.
~
M loved/loves rose' sauce - tomato sauce with a touch of cream.
I spent literally years trying to perfec a sauce that she'd like, to meet her very exacting needs on this ....
Recipe(ish):
A lot of tomato puree, a lot of oregano, some basil.
Start by frying onions - they have to be in big pieces, no puny finely cut onions.
A lot a lot of onions, preferably the golden kind, but since the sauce mostly hides the purple of the others - those can do too.
Add some garlic - preferably the dry, roughly ground type. Never ever powder ever ever! (this last one is a rule of mine in general!)
Add a cup of single cream (pref vegan), or - I've tried this with a few cups of milk and about an hour (?) (more?) reducing it - that worked too, and let it simmer gently for a bit (or just move on)
Add three cups of tomato puree, maybe 2/3 cup of dried oregano, a spoon of dried basil, or if you're out of those, hyssop or other green things will probably do.
Cook for 10-20 minutes (if there is no liquid, add very little water just so it doesn't burn)
Turn off the heat, add another cup or so of tomato puree, a lot of olive or vegetable oil, salt to taste, adjust seasoning (you'll probably want more garlic). Carefully adjust sourness with maybe one spoon of rich brown sugar (or molasses or honey - it has to be something that has its own flavor, not just sweet, or the whole dish goes off balance. Also, this needs to be added the way you'd salt to a chocolate dish - only to balance and bring out the existing flavors, putting too much in will make it a disgusting tomato desert - don't do it!)
Serve on whole grain wheat spaghetti (which has a touch of sweetness itself, and tends to be less soggy )
MUST be served with salt and cucumbers pickled in brine, not vinegar.
Pref with Parmesan or plain gouda style cheese.
Pref with light beer or red wine.
~
She really loved it, but then it was almost impossible to make it *just right*, there was always *something* :(
~
Anyway - for my own tastes - I don't like pasta anymore. I am not sure why people enjoy pasta, and must hold backk from just assuming that like me, pasta for them is an excuse for sauce. I love many sorts of sauces. I'd put them of veggies or legume or grains or potatoes or tofu or friggin eat it with a spoon, why why why why stick it on an entire plate of flavorless pointless nullness? Why ? Why? Spaghetti I kinda still get because it is fun to eat, and the Disney thing and childhood memories - but really, wouldn't you prefer just the same stuff without spaghetti in it? All the flavor, without this stuff that at the best times it mostly texture, and at bad times is not even that? Not in a good way that, that is - it gets doughy or melts or gets sticky, or worst, oily, this lunchroom food you know in gonna taste gross and then gonna make you feel gross, and without even feeling pleased and nourished and good and happy!
I have a friend who doesn't like a lot of flavor. She likes pasta but no sauce.
So far we have managed to overcome this and remain friends.
At least we can agree on heart of palm.
( Previous/future days )
