Random

Food is a large part of our daily life, and is also becoming a large part of my blog.  But this time it is all about channeling my Italian roots and cooking my favorite sauce.  Many people have started to cook pastas and use tomato paste.  Tomato paste will be far away from this recipe.  I wanted to preference this with that information because of my distain for that way of going about it.  It is like cheating.  You put tomato paste into the pan and then dump cream into it.  No wonder it tastes good, cuz its all fat and cream.  So people will make this thinking that they are a good chef only to realize that they are going to wake up the next day 5 pounds heavier.  Not to mention when you put a lot of cream in a dish it wrecks havoc on your digestive track, but I'll leave it at that.

Now if you want to make a truly good sauce you need good ingredients.  A pasta sauce is determined by the ingredients.  Most important of these are the tomatoes.  Get San Marzano tomatoes.  Don't get fooled by san American tomatoes, they are not the same thing.  San Marzano tomatoes are a little sweeter and much more delicious for a sauce.  I get the Centro cans.  

With that out of the way lets actually start making the dish.  I like to cook the meat first, this can be bacon, pancetta, sausage, or all of three.  Once you get a strong sear on the meat take it out of the pan and put it to the side.  With the oil still in the pan you are then going to put your diced onions and garlic in.  This combination is the stuff that makes people say, wow... that smells really good.  After a good caramelization add the tomatoes in crushing them as you put them into the pan.  The reason why I stress getting a good can is that a good can not only is the real thing but it is also surrounded by the actual pure of the tomatoes. Cheaper cans just put tomato juice in there, eww.  This is when you add your meat back into the pan and then put it to low and then leave.  For a while.  The longer the better. 

 I usually get impatient after an hour.  This is when you start cooking your pasta.  Then in the very end right before the pasta is done you are going to put some of the pasta water in the sauce, cream, and parmesan.  This makes the sauce creamier and have a greater depth of flavor.  Then you can enjoy.  Simple as that.  Its not that hard, tastes way better than that cream way, and actually makes you seem like you can cook.