Friday Recipe – Simple Spaghetti Made Simple
I do this one every other Thursday — and would do it more often if Melissa would let me.
You’ll need:
1/3 cup light olive oil.
1 medium white onion, diced.
1 clove garlic, minced.
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes.
1 14-oz can crushed tomatoes.
1 handful basil leaves, torn to about the same size as the onion.
1 tbsp Chianti.
1 tsp tomato paste.
1/2 pound lean ground beef.
1/2 pound ground sweet italian sausage.
1 pound quality spaghetti noodles. We like De Cecco.
Put your pasta water on to boil in a very large pot.
Bring the olive oil, in a saucepan big enough for everything, up to medium heat. Dice the onion. Toss in the oil and let simmer for eight minutes. While simmering, mince the garlic and toss in with the onions. Crack some pepper in there. Open your two cans of tomatoes and have at the ready. At the eight minute mark, pour in the tomatoes and add the tomato paste, too.
If the onions aren’t yet semi-translucent, give them another minute or maybe two before adding the tomatoes.
ASIDE: Most people use a single 28-oz can of tomato sauce, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But — diced tomatoes add some extra texture and a nice sweetness when you bite into them. By themselves, however, the sauce is too dry. So I go 50/50 between those and the crushed tomatoes. Why crushed? Less sodium than canned sauce, and I’m on a low-sodium diet. Stupid middle age.
Tear the basil and add it, too, then the wine. Let simmer uncovered for ten minutes. You’ll probably need to turn the heat down to Low, especially if you live at high elevation.
That Chianti you opened for the sauce? Now it’s for the chef.
Brown your meat in a medium-high frying pan, strain off excess grease, add to sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce is too acidic, add the wee tiniest pinch of sugar. A quarter teaspoon is too much.
Add a half tablespoon of kosher salt to your pasta water and put the spaghetti in. Boil for 9-10 minutes. Or for 11 minutes, if you’re at 7,500 feet. Cooking’s just a little bit different up here.
It ain’t pretty, but it’s pretty darn good.
Just before the pasta is done, take a ladle full of pasta water and add it to the sauce.
Strain pasta and allow to rest for 60 seconds, then mix into the sauce.
Total simmering time for the sauce shouldn’t be too much longer than 20 minutes — if you like your onion to still have some firmness. Other folks like to simmer it an hour or all day, until the onion is unrecognizable, but I think that’s a real shame.
Pour the whole mess into a large bowl and set on the table to serve family style. Have some Parm and pepper handy, too.
ALSO: If you missed last week’s triumphant return of the Friday Recipe, it’s the All-American Steak & Salad. Anybody can bake a potato, but a perfect Caesar is art.
Yum!!!
My neighborhood farmer makes his own sausage while I grow the tomatoes. Will have to try this with those variants.
Can’t beat fresh!
I have to say, your recipes are my favorite. I still make your Chicken Parm recipe you had on years ago. My friends request it!
Thanks for the reminder — I haven’t made that one in ages. Must be time.
Maybe I’ll repost it, this time with pictures.
I’m making it for easter dinner!
Your recipe looks great. I’m going to use it and add one item: a handful of crisp crumbled bacon.
Sounds good. And not over-cooked, like most sauce recipes. I do something similar, except I use the fancy Italian-style canned tomatoes with the basil in the can. They have a nice “bright” flavor, without being acidic, and I have a terrible time trying to keep fresh basil around.
Next, I hit it with a stick blender after adding the tomatoes to the oil/onion mixture. The blender is actually really important–if you blend it nice and smooth, the oil and acids form an emulsion that is lighter in color and almost frothy. Wonderful texture, clings nicely to the pasta, and it looks more appetizing on the plate than most sauces. It also takes a hit of cream very nicely at the last minute, for a great pink sauce.
In your case, since you like the diced chunks, I’d drain the diced tomatoes and emulsify the crushed tomatoes plus the puree from the can of diced, and stir in the diced tomatoes after that’s done. Come to think of it, I might have to try that next time.
Neil, my sentiments exactly. Put the San Marzano (type, not necessarily the brand) tomatoes in a bowl and crush using your hands before adding to the sauce. Yes, the basil in the can infuses the flavor, while fresh basil added to the sauce will wilt and not really add as much. And yes, the stick blender is the piece de resistance providing amazing texture anad visual touch. Then, when serving, along with the parm cheese and the crsuhed red pepper, that’s where you add the fresh basil leaves.
Stephen, OK every body has their own preference. But, just one clove of garlic?
I add 1 large, fire-roasted Anaheim pepper to saute with the onions and a dash or two of red pepper flakes for a bit of kick. Also, I like adding the wine earlier and a bit more of it so it gets ever so close to burning the sugars. Somehow that caramelizing flavor with a little bit of heat gets the flavor buds going. (We’re from Texas). Loved the Caesar salad recipe. “Bout the only good reason to have those smelly little fish on hand.
A tip I learned in Naples (four years there, serving in the Navy, oh the sacrifices I made for my country…) is to add a couple of diced roma tomatoes, and about one tsp of water for each tomato… simmer slowly while you get everything else ready (and if you have a pasta maker… which you should… that’s about an hour, but do it for at least 30 minutes). The tomato trick makes Prego sauce taste homemade.