FRIDAY FOOD THING
This past weekend I decided to make spaghetti. I rarely buy canned sauce because making home sauce is such a gas. Seriously, it’s hard to mess up spaghetti sauce if you have tomato paste or sauce, some onions, garlic or garlic powder, fresh oregano, and fresh grated Romano or Parmesan cheese. From that point on it’s simply a creative process.
For me, making spaghetti sauce is a reflective time, one for emptying out dark corners of the refrigerator. Sniff once: OooooEEeee! Throw the ingredient away. Sniff twice: Hmmmm! Toss it in the sauce.
At any rate, this past weekend I added a whole, very finely-chopped Patti-Pan squash (the white ones that look like the queen’s crown on a chess piece). The sauce was terrific.
A favorite trick for making great spaghetti sauce is to include grated Romano cheese early-on in the simmering process. Not too much. Mom adds a tiny pinch of baking soda to reduce the acid content.
Tim, I have noticed that very few people add fennel seed to their spaghetti sauce. I don’t feel like it is finished or has good flavor without it.
Do you have an opinion on this or is just my “quirk” with my taste in sauce?
I feel the same about cumin in chili. Mst have it ot it just isn’t as good.
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Hmmm. Never tried fennel. I have, however, ground up roasted rye seeds in a mortar and pestle and added that to all kinds of sauces.
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What about a cooked Spaghetti Squash that is chopped up finely and a toss of fresh or dried basil leaves at the very end?
I am not trying to improve upon the perfect but only add a variation.
Maybe a reminder that Romano cheese is very salty and therefore no added salt is needed – Parmesan cheese is also salty.
I like your idea that making spaghetti sauce is therapeutic(“such a gas”).
In the winters up here when it is -20Celsius or -30Celsius and the winds are whipping the snow around – a.k.a. BLIZZARD – doing up a sauce like this is not merely “a gas”, it is life-enhancing and, at 3:00 a.m. when I arise, almost transcendental.
I LOVE to cook – and to read about this recipe and the others in the post.
Is it me or does it bind us together and make us more social when we share recipes?
Timothy Wingate
Ottawa CANADA
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