BACK IN AUGUST

in the days leading up to sandwich week,
i was eating a lot of homemade pasta.
i forgot to write about some of that.
maybe i'll start now-

yeah!
i've got that spinach semolina sexxxiness for your face!
thick ribbons of fat tagliatelle,
homemade manly macho marinara,
and all the exxtra veg.
pan-seared and slimeless is the only was i wanna have portobello mushrooms on my plate.
for real, i hate a slimy mushroom,
so i lightly salt 'em, get 'em all browned in a hot pan, and then,
when the moisture is mostly gone, i'l hit 'em with a little drizzle of olive oil.
otherwise, you're just getting those butt-nasty slippery bummers,
and i do not hang out like that.
blistered baby grape tomatoes, in red, orange, and brown?
F* yes.
i want all the lycopeine, neighbors,
more tomatoes means more power.
i think there's a special-meter, like from video games, somewhere in my body....
and instead of hit combos filling it up,
it's always just the sauce count.
whole tomatoes count, and fully-formed tomato sauce counts double-
clearly i was building towards some kind of megadose with this dish,
if memory serves, i was glowing afterwards, for sure.
and let's not ever forget just how much fresh garden-plucked basil turns up
the flavors in a bowl of pasta.
for real.
what's in the sauce?
well, it goes like  this:
-
*
SAUCE!!!
-
saute one shallot and 2 cloves of garlic in 1 T of olive oil,
add:
1/2 cup quartered sweet baby tomatoes,
and-
2 tsp fresh oregano leaves;
1/2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary;
1 punch of fresh torn basil;
2 T flat leaf parsley;
1/2 tsp ea GPOP;
1 T nutritional yeast.
add in:
1 T red wine vinegar;
1 T tamari;
1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes;
1/2 cup water;
1 tsp sugar;
a shake of sage, thyme, black pepper, and crushed red pepper.....
cover it, bring it to a boil,
then reduce it to a simmer for at least twenty minutes.
MORE of course will greatly improve the overall hottness of any sauce.
in fact,
i've been known to make sauce a day in advance,
just to really get the maxxximum tastiness out of a pot of the stuff.
yep.
that's smart.
also,
those pasta ribbons?
with the spinach?
mmhmm.
expert.
-
1 cup of king arthur flour;
3 T semolina flour;
2 T olive oil;
1 tsp sea salt;
2 tsp spinach powder;
1/3 cup warm water.
kneaded up in a stand-up mixer to really beat the sh!t out of it,
and make sure its fully formed into a shiny ball of tight gluten strands.
-
i gave it the customary 11 minute marathon whack-up.
rested it for twenty minutes, lightly oiled and covered,
then rolled it out on a well-floured surface,
rolled the thin rectangle up with flour to keep it from sticking itself,
then sliced FAT spirals off of the whole log.
i've done it before, and written about it a lot,
but every time, it's just too damned good.
i mean, literally two minutes in a vat of salty boilin' water has you eating
the best homemade pasta you could imagine,
and that's what we all want, isn't it?
no?
well, it should be.
that's my take on the thing, anyway.
*
i like pasta.
i love pizza,
i need sauce and bread.
that's the truth.
i'd never had as deep a desire for italian food as i do these days.
that's where my tastebuds are at, i guess.
it's all right there-
flour and tomatoes and salt and olive oil.
what else do we even need?
love, i guess, and not much else;
never quiet, never soft.....