Joe's Spaghetti Bolognese

My roommate makes the most amazing, homey, hearty, rich, robust, delicious spag bol I've ever had in my life. Aside from the wild boar ragu at Myth (* sob *). note to self to get resos at Zinnia for Sean O'Briens wild boar meat sauce; nom.

He's made it twice now and every time I smell it cooking I come running. The first time I just had to have a taste, even though I had already eaten. The second time I was lucky enough to get my own gigantic portion. I determined then and there, that I simply must have this dish for my birthday dinner. He seemed to think I was teasing him, but oh no. This spag bol is the way I think spag bol was meant to taste. It's perfect.

Since he'll be off in lalaland (psh) for my birthday, I can't demand he make it for me and my friends as a gift in honor of the kickoff to my 32nd year on Earth. Damn.

What's a girl to do except to insist that he divulge all of his Mexican-English based Italian cuisine secrets? Last night was the night that he looked over my shoulder and walked me through it and well; I came close. There is just something that I can't quite grasp. Some weird, teeny tiny little spark that I was just unable to capture. Is it umami? Bay leaf? Acidity? I cannot tell but it was woefully absent from last night's attempt. To say I'm devastated is to put it mildly. That spark is what I wanted to serve! Without it, it's just spag bol! Good spag bol, but not Joe's LIFE ALTERING spag bol. It's a depth of flavor that I can't quite figure out, but I know I felt like I wanted to add a little wine to the sauce thinking that's what it was.

My birthday sucks already. :o( I hope someone brings cake.

Joe's Spaghetti Bolognese
serves 4-5
1 half of a medium/large white onion, finely chopped
1 half of a shallot, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, smashed
8 oz of sliced mushrooms
1 lb ground beef (80/20 or 85/15 - you need some fat)
Mild Italian sausages - enough for each person to have one (I also used some of those Aidell's sundried tomato ones)
1 jar of Ralphs/Cala Foods tomato basil pasta sauce
pasta of your choice
olive oil
1-2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
dried basil
oregano
4-5 bay leaves
Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes
Parmesan cheese

Put a tbsp of olive oil into a large saute pan over med-hi. Add the butter and let melt.
Toss in the clove of garlic, the shallots, and about half to 2/3 of the onion and saute for a minute. Add mushrooms and saute just til the mushies get some color and start to soften. Pour the onion/mushie mixture into a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, add a teeny bit more oil (only if necessary to prevent sticking), and add the ground beef and remaining raw onion. Cook until browned and then pour off fat.
While meat is cooking in one pan, cook the sausages in another pan. Add a little oil so they don't stick, and sprinkle them with some Italian seasoning.

Add the jar of pasta sauce to the drained meat and stir the onion/mushie mixture back in. Toss in a tbsp or so of dried basil, a few dashes of red pepper flakes (you don't want it SPICY per se, just with a little bit of an undertone from the peppers), some oregano (1 - 2 tsps maybe?), and the bay leaves, and give it a good stir.
If the sausages are done, nestle them into the sauce as well, if not, you can do so once they are ready.

Let the sauce come to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover. Let simmer for 45 minutes or so; stirring a couple of times.

With 15 or so minutes left, get your pasta going.

Drain pasta, serve, and top with a generous portion of pasta sauce and a sausage. Top with a sprinkling of cheese.

Cry because of some undetermined depth of flavor that is missing that makes it not quite Joe's.
No wait, you don't even know what you're missing, so just enjoy it. I'll cry.

The clever gang over at Chowhound has plenty of nommy sounding suggestions too.

Twain Harte Pasta

I don't know what else to call this since I think it was the pasta sauce that was the magical ingredient here. I have scoured the interwebs trying to find this sauce to refer to it here, but I can't remember what it's called and Twain Harte Market's website doesn't work quite like Safeway's. (Mel, if you feel like digging through your trash and reading the label for me, please post it in the comments!).
Melissa & Piia and I had some girl talk to catch up on so we decided to have a nice healthy South Beach dinner over at Mel's. She had all sorts of goods to choose from in whipping something up, and I brought over some of my homemade pesto. We cooked up some whole wheat rotini. I baked some chicken with Italian spices and gourmet sea salt on Mel's gorgeous Le Crueset grill pan which I covet, even though some of my fellow home cooks struggle with them. I browned the chicken on both sides (four breasts) and then popped it in the oven at 350 until it looked done.
We heated up this magical sauce from TH Market, and I added about 3/4 of a cup of my homemade pesto to the full can of sauce. We cut up the chicken, tossed that with the other 1/4 cup of pesto that I thinned out a bit with some extra olive oil and then added it to the sauce and pasta. A sprinkling of parmesan and voila. It was possibly the best pasta I have had in a long time. Thank God Mel sent home leftovers since I am about to pull a Dickerson and eat it for breakfast.
We also had a great salad with oranges (expertly supremed by Piia), sliced dried apricots, avocado, tomatoes, and red onions with a citrus vinaigrette. Num.

Sauce on toast

I don't know what I was more into last night - the discovery of an Earthlike planet orbiting a neighboring star on "Search for Second Earth" on the Science Channel (I've never tried to hide my geekiness), or the toast I was eating.
I had made my standard onion/tomato pasta (with the addition of some of the Pinot I was drinking to help saucify things, minus any cheese or basil because I didn't have them) a couple of nights ago and had some leftovers. The leftovers consisted of about 7 noodles and a whole heap of tomatoes and onions and yum. Because I worship at the altar of SF Sourdough, I just about always have some around. I toasted up a piece and heated the oven to 450 because I'm impatient. I smeared the onion/tomato mix onto the toast and covered it with crumbled goat cheese and popped it in the oven for a few to warm and melt the cheese.
Seriously you guys, I think I'm just going to eat this for dinner every night now. It was tangy, sweet, salty, savory, a little bit spicy, creamy and crunchy all at once. It was a very simple, happy discovery; you know, like finding a planet that looks like it could potentially support life but with way less math and stuff.

More pasta sauce!

I think it's clear that there is some strong Italian blood in these Mexican Irish veins if my propensity for tomato sauces is any indication. My grandmother (the Irish part) made the yummiest bolognese around though, so maybe we're just creative geniuses with tomatoes.
Rather than purchase a jar of sauce last night, I figured I'd use up some of my many cans of tomatoes and make my own to go with the whole wheat three cheese tortellini I had.
2 cloves of garlic - smashed
1 medium onion - cut in half and very thinly sliced
2 cans tomatoes - I used one can of plum tomatoes with oregano and basil, and one can of diced tomatoes
3/4 can tomato paste
1-2 tbsp dried basil (to taste)
pinch of oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes
glug of olive oil

I went twice around my pot with the oil, let it heat over medium high, then added the garlic and onion and cooked until fragrant and just soft. Then I added the two cans of tomatoes and let cook for a few minutes.
Next, I added the tomato paste and the herbs, mixed everything well, turned it down to low and put a lid on it to simmer.
Stirring occasionally, once it looked thick enough I was done. I didn't even need to add salt and pepper it was so perfectly yummy and ready to go. I put half of it in the freezer, and mixed in 1/4 cup or so of fat free half and half into what was still in the pot to make a pink sauce. At that point I felt like I could've gone with another clove of garlic, but darn it was tasty.

Sauceless spaghetti sauce

One summer evening, I was in the mood for a nice light pasta, similar to Amatriciana, but using what I could find in the kitchen. This was the result of that serendipity of culinary flotsam and jetsam, and I've made it several times since. Sometimes it gets tweaked yet again, depending on what I have on hand. You could even add a dash of cream or half and half to make a pink sauce. Yum!

a smashed garlic clove or two
olive oil
sliced onion - maybe half a cup's worth
red pepper flakes
cherry tomatoes - maybe two cup's worth
basil if you have it
Parmesan (or another dry cheese for pasta toppin') (or goat cheese, but I put goat cheese in any recipe that holds still long enough for me to do so. . . . )

Glug some oil into a sautee pan, maybe a tablespoon or so and turn the heat up to medium. Add the garlic clove and the onion once the oil is hot and sautee until soft, or until the onions start to caramelize, depending on your preference (remove the garlic once it starts to brown so it doesn't get bitter!) Once the onions are ready, drop in a pinch of red pepper flakes (again, to taste), and your tomatoes. If they're bigger guys, you can cut them first, but you don't have to.
Continue cooking, adjusting heat as necessary, adding more oil if necessary. The tomatoes will give up their juice and get squishy and start to meld with the other flavors; once they begin to do so, throw in some basil if you've got it - I recommend fresh here though rather than dried as this is not a slow cooked sauce.
Once it looks like something I think will work as a sauce, I dump in some cooked and drained pasta and stir it around (*tip - a little of the pasta cooking water can help add to the sauciness of it if need be). Plate it and finish it off with plenty of fresh parmesan or parmiggiano-reggiano and eat it up!


I really need to come up with a more clever name for this yummy dish. I'm open to suggestions if anyone ever reads this.