The thing I was most wrong about was thinking I could continue to lose weight while doing pasta journey. It's not even the pasta itself per se. I have a bad habit of once I go over my calorie goal I decide to turn the day into a "metabolism-booster day" which basically means eating an extra 1500 calories of mixed nuts and whatever else is lying around.
My two biggest goals right now are in direct opposition—cook a bunch of delicious food and lose weight.
The lesson here? Hoagie Central is never wrong! I'm so glad I'm imaginary rich after that imaginary bet.
I took the bottom photo first, ate it, then realized that it might have been hard to see under all that grated Romano. So I took another photo sans cheese.
I learned this sauce from my in-laws and have been making it for 12 years now. This is my all-purpose red sauce. I love it on pizza. I love it on meatball subs. And I love it on pasta. It slow simmers on the stove for an hour. The sauce is thick which is great because you can add pasta water to get the consistency you like. If you start with a thin sauce, I'm not going to want to add any pasta water. Also, in general, I don't like thin sauces.
I feel like I should mention this is a tomato sauce for people that don't like tomatoes. Because I'm one of those people. It specifically doesn't use whole tomatoes because I don't want tomato chunks.
Today was the first time that I cooked it with any meat. Specifically, I made the recipe and split it into two pots, one with Italian sausage, one without. The browned sausage chunks simmered in the sauce for an hour. And surprisingly, the sauce turned out basically the same in both pots. I was expecting for the sausage to flavor the sauce but that didn't really happen. I did enjoy the sausage chunks for sure, but it's definitely optional and not a meaty revelation like I was hoping for.
1 medium onion, diced
28 oz crushed tomatoes
12 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt, pepper, garlic powder, herbs to taste
It's so simple to make. Saute the onion in some olive oil. Add the tomatoes and paste. Add the sugar and seasonings. Cook for an hour on a medium-low simmer. Then taste and adjust as necessary. Usually a bit more salt and pepper at the end.
Then serve with pasta and freshly grated cheese.
If you wanted it less sweet, you could certainly add less brown sugar. You could add red pepper flake or garlic for more a robust, balanced sauce.
The boys loved it. Brit liked it but said it was on the sweet side for her. I like it sweet because I like to cover it in salty, hard cheese.
Look for them to struggle tomorrow. There are currently a -120 favorite over the Penguins.
I'm laying big imaginary money on the Penguins.
Right now I've got one v-neck and one baseball tee, so I anticipate getting some more Next Level shirts in the future.
I've posted three that were already in the collection, plus two new ones from Tuesday (aglio e olio and creamy garlic shells.) Next up, I'm going to remake one sauce that's already in the collection to try out a new sausage technique. After that, cacio e pepe.
So I'm all caught up on pastas that I've already made. No more days where I'm posting 5 pastas.
So I knew my family liked fettuccine alfredo. So I thought, how could I kick this up a notch? Add lots of crushed garlic, chopped parsley, and make a roux, so we're basically riffing on bechamel at this point.
I let my youngest son pick the shape and it was a great choice. The shells really filled up with the sauce and was fun to eat.
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
8 cloves garlic, grated
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1 lb. medium shells pasta
Melt the butter, add the flour and garlic. Then half cup at a time, add the half and half, stirring until smooth. Season with a little salt and good amount of pepper. Stir in the cheese until melted and then add parsley. Stir the sauce into the drained pasta.
I found initially that the sauce was a little thinner (very creamy) than I was expecting. Just a touch. So I added a little more Parmesan and gave it an extra minute on the stove and it thickened perfectly. But maybe next time I would aim for 3.25 cups of half and half.
I never claimed that was going to be a strict Italian journey. This is definitely an Americanized pasta dish, just like alfredo. Personally, I thought this kicked the pants off alfredo sauce. The roux added a deeper nuttiness, the garlic was great, and the fresh parsley was a nice addition too. Definitely seems like something I'll be making again one day.
This was the one pasta I learned during 2020 quarantine. It was a recommendation from my boss and it does not disappoint. This was a hit for the whole family. A creamy tomato sauce—and I love the color.
I like rigatoni for these because it can really get the sauce in each tube. In fact, rigatoni became my default shape for any sauce because of that. It works with everything.
3 tbsp. butter
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. vodka
1 lb. rigatoni
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
Melt the butter, sauté the shallot and garlic. Add the tomato paste and red pepper and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the vodka. Add the cream, parmesan and 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Salt and pepper to taste and add more pasta water if necessary. Serve with extra Parmesan.
This was the first pasta dish that Brit and learned to make from scratch over ten years ago. We've since made it many times. It's our oldest child's favorite food. He even requested it at Thanksgiving one year.
1 pound fettuccine
1 stick butter
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups freshly grated Parmesan
salt and pepper
You just warm the butter and cream in a pan and pour it over half the Parmesan in a bowl. Add the pasta and a little pasta water. Then add the rest of the cheese, salt and pepper to taste. I like to reserve just a but of grated cheese to put on at the table.
It feels like a special occasion, despite it being super simple to make.
This is perhaps the simplest dish of all, so it seemed like the right place to start. Oil and garlic. During World War II, resources were scarce. But you had to eat. Cheese was a luxury.
I chose angel hair for this because I knew the "sauce" was going to be very thin and light. I wanted a thin pasta that wouldn't be too dense for a light sauce.
I sautéed 7 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced in the extra virgin olive oil. Then added red pepper flakes and a few chopped fresh Italian parsley stems. Once the pasta was almost al dente, I added a ladle of pasta water. Then transferred the pasta, added the parsley leaves. It seemed like I chopped up a ton of parsley, but it could have handled even more. Added a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Then added pasta water until it seemed the right consistency.
In a pinch, I've made olive oil pasta before. But never this good. It's simple and light, yet allows for the flavors to come through. You definitely get garlic. (Brit said the garlic was a bit strong, which to me was validation of a job well done.) You get the oil. The parsley adds a lot. And the red pepper and lemon are just there to give the whole thing some zing and brightness. It totally works.
Not my absolute favorite by any means, but still I get why this is a classic. A great place to start a journey. Pasta al Limone is an upgraded version of this concept that I'll make one day, so I'm glad I started here.
Today I am embarking on a Pasta Journey.
First question: Why pasta?
The truth is a complicated history, a long connected string of events that have Inceptioned me into this moment. Some of these events include the first time I had pasta carbonara in Brooklyn in 1999. Or the first time I visited Italia in 2009. They include wanting to learn Italian in 2016 but stopping and merely adding it to my bucket list. It includes watching Master of None. It includes writing a list of pastas to make during lockdown only to get sidetracked after one dish. A few weeks ago, we saw a few episodes of Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy show in a hotel. Then last week we saw the conclusion of Top Chef Season 17 in Tuscany. That was the tipping point that made me restart learning Italian. Which was the catalyst to truly begin the Pasta Journey in earnest. (I mean, you can only talk about forchette e piatto e cacio e carne for so long before you wish you were having pasta.)
So why pasta, exactly? It's delicious, for one. But many things are. I love that it has simple ingredients, and not too many. It's affordable and quite easy to feed a family of four. Plus, everyone in our family likes it. It seems like when done right, it's one of the easiest ways to get restaurant-quality food at home. While pasta can be rich and isn't exactly considered health food, it fits into my healthy eating plan better than pizza, bread, or desserts. I feel like I'll be able to fit a single serving of pasta as my dinner for under 750 calories. But mostly it seemed slightly elusive. That there are all these dishes that I've seen recipes for or videos on YouTube, but haven't tried to make them myself.
Next question: Why a journey?
Short answer is I wanted a project. Long answer is there are so many dishes that I want to make. There are techniques to master. And then there's making your own pasta from scratch. This isn't trying to perfect a single item like an apple pie. You can do that in a weekend. This will take a while and is one of those things where even after I've got 10 or 15 dishes that I feel comfortable making, there's always more to try. I've got to walk before I run. I'm going to start with nailing down some sauces before moving on to fresh pasta. Like many things, this is a journey without a definite endpoint. But over time, I'll be adding dishes that I feel like I'm comfortable making to the collection below. I'm starting with four that already belong. I think it will be fun to see that collection grow over time.
A note on authenticity.
I understand why Italians hold on to traditions. I think their passion for authenticity is great and makes the dishes special. When they say no butter, cream or oil in Cacio e Pepe, I get it. If you add any of those ingredients to the pot, you no longer have Cacio e Pepe. So I'll be aiming for authenticity when using certain words. But I also recognize that I'm neither Italian nor a professional chef. I'm cooking for me and my family. And I'm willing to experiment. I already know that when I make my take on carbonara, I like to add cream, which then no longer makes it a true carbonara. But I'm okay with that. I'm making it for me so I'll make it how I want. I'll just try to be careful with what I call it.
The Collection
H is a bracket savant. He's won our group that dates back 20 years more than anyone.
When it was time to make a bracket, I searched in vain through my own archives for a post that would help me build a winning bracket. I found no post. I lost.
So this year, I made 12 different brackets, partially for fun, partially to experiment and see what it takes to build a winning bracket. Currently with the title game yet to be played, my brackets range from the 4th percentile to the 96th.
