Spaghetti sauce - meat or not meat

For those of you that buy spaghetti sauce in jars, please stop! Not only is it full of junk (preservatives and god knows what else), it's just plain gross (in my opinion).

So here is a simple sauce that I make all the time. It makes enough to eat a big dinner, have a lunch and freeze enough for another dinner.

Ingredients to buy at the store
2 28oz cans of tomatoes. My favorites are the Muir Glen fire roasted, or San Marzano's. Plain old regular ones are fine but they won't give you as much flavor.
One medium-large onion (yellow or white)
Garlic (a few cloves)
Tomato paste (not necessary, but I think it helps)
Basil (preferably fresh, but dried is ok)
Salt, Sugar, Pepper, Olive oil (hopefully those are staples)
Red pepper flakes (if you like a bit of spice)
Spaghetti or Angel Hair or whatever noodles you want

Chop the onion. If you are not planning on blending this sauce (I use a stick blender that I adore), then cut the onion into the size pieces you would like to eat. Open the cans of tomatoes and either press or mince the garlic (or buy it pre-chopped like I do). Carefully cut up your basil if it is fresh.

Heat oil in a saute pan. If you don't know that means here is an example. You can probably use a dutch oven (like a Le Creuset) or really any sort of pot will probably do. When the oil is warmed up add the onion pieces. Stir so they don't stick or burn. Then add the garlic. Continue stirring for about 5-7 minutes to get out the flavor (I made that up....hopefully it brings out the flavor, I don't really know).

Then add the tomatoes. Here is where you have a choice. If you have a stick blender you can just dump them all in even if they are whole, because you can blend them later. If you aren't going to blend it, then what I used to do is wash my hands and then pick up each whole tomato and break it into little pieces with my hands. It will squirt, so beware!!! Now squeeze in some tomato paste (or from a jar....I am convinced the ones in the squirt tubes are better, but probably not). I don't measure an amount. If I had to guess I would say maybe 2 or 3 Tablespoons. Then I add a spoonful of white sugar (it helps cut the acid of the tomatoes....ok I made that up too, but it might be true) and a few sprinkles of salt and pepper. If you are doing fresh basil then add as much as you can. I'd say at least one cup chopped and loosely packed. If you are doing dry basil then maybe a teaspoon or so. Other people like oregano, but I do not. You can add it if you like it.

I turn up the heat to bring it to a boil. Once it boils I turn it down to simmer and put the top on tightly for about 30 minutes.

If you would like to add meat, I cook the meat in a fry pan separate from the sauce. When it's cooked through (or like 90% through) I spoon off all of the fat and then I dump it into the sauce AFTER the 30 minutes is up. I also like to add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to the sauce for a bite.

After 30 minutes I take the top off and then I put on a pot of water to boil. Between the water heating up and the pasta cooking, that's probably about 15 minutes or so of more cooking.
First picture is AFTER blending it, second picture is BEFORE blending.

When all done I like to pour more Kraft Parmesan (I know, gross, but I love it) than humanly possible on top and eat eat eat.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Spinach...Healthy? Jury still out.

Ok I will not try to become one of nine million gazillion food blogs, however I really do like writing about food. My life (at this moment) is just not that exciting - but food is!

I made it through my first day back at work. In fact the second I saw the little second grade faces I melted and remembered that I adored them. Even though I left them in December all hyped up on sugar and looking like gremlins, they are once again normal looking and acting. Wow, I like them more off the sugar! We discussed presents and what we did over vacation. One second grader (not in my class) informed me that she loved, "the color of my hair." I am not sure how it is any different than the color it has been all year, but hey I'll take a compliment wherever I can right?

So back to cooking. Tonight I made. Wait I have to stop because Tom just informed me that I have soot covering my entire face. How is it that I rearrange the fire for 10 seconds and immediately am covered in soot, but Tom can play with the fire all night and have NO soot on himself. I don't get it. Ok so cooking. Tonight I made something that I started making a few years ago when Leah and I had cooking dates with each other (miss you Leah and Bailey....and Nate). It's a Cooking Light (although not very light) version of Spaghetti Carbonara (with the apparently healthy addition of spinach - although I'm not sure spinach makes bacon and cheese healthy). I will give simple instructions - hopefully Deana can even follow them!

First cut up some spinach. Cut up way more spinach than you could imagine needing to eat. It calls for a 6 oz bag of baby spinach. I think that's a lie. I buy the regular spinach and one bunch is seriously NOT enough - I would do two bunches. Cut off the stems and then chop it up a little bit, but not too small. Heat a frying pan and coat it with some cooking spray (or olive oil or butter if you please). Add the spinach and a little sprinkle of salt and let it cook until it wilts. Once again the recipe says 1 minute, but that is BS. I think it's more like 3 minutes.

While that's cooking chop up about 6 pieces of bacon into smaller pieces (you can probably do as much or as little bacon as you like....but you need something to add some flavor). Sharp knives (such as the ridiculously amazing Shun knives I now have) make it super easy. Take the spinach out of the pan and put it into a bowl. Now add the bacon. Beware that if you have bought organic not so fatty bacon (as we now do. I think we became official yuppies with this Seattle move) you might even want to add a bit of oil to the pan. Cook for as long as you want. Depends on how crisp you like your bacon. The lying recipe says 3 minutes but it has never taken me less than 6 minutes to get it even near to being crisp. Ok so now take the bacon out and put on a plate with a paper towel (if you have a better draining idea let me know).

Add about 1/2 a large onion (around a cup or so) to the pan with the drippings. If you used super fatty bacon then skim off the fat and leave maybe a tablespoon or so. If you used yuppie bacon you might need to add some oil. Cook the onions over medium to medium high heat (really i hate those ranges. On my stove I cook it at about a 7!). Scrape up the bacon goodness too while you are at it. Cook for about 3 minutes (that part is correct - yay recipe!) and then add 2 tablespoons dry white wine. I think you can add whatever you want here. I had no dry white wine tonight so I added sherry. It came out the same as before. I wouldn't stress about this part at all - no wine - whatever, don't add it. Ok so now the wine cooks off for like 30 seconds.

Oh crap....hopefully you have already started boiling your water. I think this pasta is better with spaghetti noodles rather than angel hair (I typically only eat angel hair...not sure why....but I like it the best). Recipe calls for 8 oz...I say make however much you want. I probably made about 12 oz. Just know that the more you make, the less sauce to go around. When you drain the pasta save about 1/4 cup of the liquid. Once again the recipe says 2 T, but I say save some more.

So the pasta is done and drained. The onions have cooked all yummy and brown. You now need to mix one entire egg and one egg white (today I did two eggs because I felt too lazy to separate... all was still delish), a pinch of salt and pepper and a ton (probably a packed 1/2 cup measure) of parmesan cheese. Those of you who know me know that I am addicted to Kraft cheese (I just am!), but I actually added a better quality tonight. The better the cheese I think the yummier the meal for sure. However I still advise putting Kraft cheese on top when you are done (I just can't help it). So you mix the egg, egg white, s & p and cheese with a whisk in a bowl. Put it in a big bowl or you will get egg chunks all over yourself!

Now dump the pasta into the pan with the onions. Add the extra cooking liquid from the pasta. Stir it all around. To make it easier to stir you might want to cut up the pasta while in the pan (I still cut my pasta when I eat it, so this makes me life doubly easy). Now add the bacon and spinach back in and put the pan at around a 4 (medium?). Mix it all around - good luck if you haven't cut your pasta!!! Now dump in the egg cheese goo mixture and stir stir stir. Cook long enough to not freak out about the egg. Recipe says 1 minute, I go for probably 3 minutes. Do this while still stirring. When all done sprinkle some parsley on top and then of course I like to cover my entire plate with parmesan cheese. YUM!