Cortese: What are your views?

Drummerhero · Aug 27, 2011

reading this thread just made me angry. I wont make a proper reply, other than to say "trust in NC and NA"

SAINTDON13 · Aug 28, 2011

TheSecondStain said: ↑

Pasta and Tomato/Onions/Garlic Sauce, with or without Meat.

Chop two or three medium onions and a few garlic cloves, some fine, some coarse. If you don't want onions, cut up an entire garlic bulb, and lock the doors to keep the friends in..!
Heat a big frying pan with oodles of Olive oil to just below smoking. Don't listen to people who say not to use Extra Virgin. It's fine. [Get it from Lidl/Aldi as it is of good quality and cheap.]
If you want to introduce beef or meatballs, now's the time to do it. Seal the meat [surface goes silvery grey] only and remove. If you don't want meat, leave this bit out.
Put onions and garlic into the pan and put the heat to medium. Add a little salt at this point for the onions. Cover with a lid, plate, whatever. Don't let the veg burn. they need to soften. This should take about 10 minutes.
Remove lid and introduce two tins of Italian plum tomatoes, watery juice included. Don't use any other tomato. While in the pan, take a sharp knife and gently cut the tomatoes up. You won't hurt your pan, as the tomatoes are very soft already. Add more salt.
Get a tube of tomato concentrate and squirt as much as you want. Half a tube is fine. Stir this all in. If the pan looks a little dry, add some water. You'll cook it out anyway.
Some people add red wine at this point [or at the sealing meat stage]. The only place I add it is into a glass so that I can drink it while I'm cooking. This doesn't need it.
Cover with lid and leave on low heat for an hour or more. Upto a certain point, the longer the better, especially if you have meat in the sauce. Come back to check every 15-20 mins. Add water if the sauce appears to be going dry [it won't if the lid is a good seal].
After the time needed to cook the sauce [and meat if you have it], uncover [and remove the meat], Stir the sauce round, making sure there are no burnt bits or that it is overly dry in areas. Taste it, and see if it needs more salt. Don't be afraid of seasoning. Food can taste bloody awful without it, so use it. Now turn the heat up to highish and reduce the sauce. For those that don't know what that is, it is cooking some more of the water out by evaporation. Stir all the time. Reduce until you're satisfied it is think enough. Re-introduce he meat, cover and set aside.

Now boil lots of water, much more than you think you need, with about 3-4 teaspoons of salt. Don't worry about the salt, it's in loads of water. Introduce a minimum of 4oz of pasta per person into the boiling water. Why a minimum..? Because they'll want seconds..! Partially cover with a lid and reduce the heat to a soft boil [bubbling water]. Occasionally stir it to stop any sticking [it shouldn't in a large amount of water] Cook until you like the texture. There's torche [some say that's just off stiff pasta], aldente [still with a bite] and cooked through. Then there's a mess in the pot. That's over cooked, so start again..!

One tip - Don't waste money buying fresh pasta. Good dried pasta is every bit the equal and is how pasta should be, and historically is. Only buy fresh when there is no alternative or additives like meat or spinach in the pasta. Also generally, don't buy the ingredients [apart from the salt, I suppose] from Sainsburys, Tescos, Waitrose, etc.. as they are either of poor quality or way over priced. Don't use fresh plum tomatoes for the sauce. They don't in Italy. This is originally a poor person's dish, after all.

Apologies to people who know all this. No, I didn't get the recipe from The Don but from my Italian relatives. Perhaps he'll read this and come on here..!
Click to expand...

Ruined the ambience of my Big Mac!

fran-MLs little camera · Aug 28, 2011

Drummerhero said: ↑

reading this thread just made me angry. I wont make a proper reply, other than to say "trust in NC and NA"
Click to expand...

Why? Can they make a proper Carbonara?

Cortese: What are your views?

Cortese: What are your views?

Arrogance over sense

Intelligence over most people's heads

Drummerhero Active Member

SAINTDON13 Well-Known Member

fran-MLs little camera Well-Known Member

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Cortese: What are your views?

Cortese: What are your views?

Arrogance over sense

Intelligence over most people's heads

Drummerhero Active Member

SAINTDON13 Well-Known Member

fran-MLs little camera Well-Known Member

Share This Page

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