Pasta With Red Sauce
ID: 173436
Description: A simple pasta recipe that you can improvise with.
Steps:
- Gather all your ingredients.
- Preheat a large dutch oven on medium-low heat.
- Prepare all your ingredients while your dutch oven preheats.
- Mise en place means "putting into place" in French. It is a technique to prepare and organize all ingredients prior to starting cooking.
- Remove the germ from your garlic, which has a bitter taste.
- Prepare your protein of choice as you like. Today I will be using diced Guanciale.
- Protein is optional, but if you are skipping it you will need butter or olive oil as a source of fat.
- Empty the tomatoes into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the spices, anchovies, and vodka.
- Eyeball the amounts.
- Discard the anchovy oil.
- A little fennel goes a long way!
- Mix and crush everything thoroughly with your hands until you have a nice consistency.
- Brown your protein on medium-low heat to render out a good amount of fat.
- Remove and reserve the protein.
- Add the minced onion, stirring intermittently. Cook enough to soften, about 5 minutes.
- The water released from the onion will deglaze the pan.
- Use a garlic press to add your desired amount of garlic. Stir consistently until it smells phenomenal (about 1-2 minutes).
- Increase heat to medium and add in the prepared tomatoes.
- Reduce heat to medium-low once they start to simmer.
- This time I added dried boletus, AKA Porcini mushrooms. The beauty of this recipe is it can be improvised.
- Zest a lemon in there.
- If you're a real lemon freak like I am, squeeze the juice in there at the end.
- Simmer and stir for at least a half hour.
- Finally, add the protein back in along with some butter to give the sauce an nice gloss.
- Boil up some of your favorite pasta (this is orecchiette).
- A quality bronze-die pasta is recommended.
- Plate and stir in a generous amount of Parmesan.
- Use a microplaner and aged parmigiano reggiano for the best result.
- Garnish with basil or parsley.
