Hitting the Sauce II
Alright, last time I ranted about canned pasta sauce. You may be thinking that there’s no way I would actually recommend a canned pasta sauce right? Last time I said:
1. They taste like canned pasta sauce (yuck!)
2. It’s cheaper to make it yourself
3. Organic is best, but make do and STICK TO THE BUDGET
When it comes to feeding the family for forty, there is no better store than Trader Joe’s. I realize that some of you may not have a TJ’s in your area, or if you are like me (and if you are, my condolences to your spouse) you thought that Trader Joe’s was some kind of foofy, specialty food store. Nevertheless, it is a regular grocery store except smaller, but it is nearly impossible to get everything you need from there because of it’s size and selection.
They do excel at the pantry staples and one (or two) that I would definitely recommend are the Trader Joe’s Marinara and the Trader Joe’s Whole Peeled Plum Tomatoes with basil.
The marinara runs about $1.69 and the whole tomatoes around $1.19.
If food allergies are not a concern, or speed is a factor (hello two working parents!) grab the marinara. Of all the canned sauces I’ve tried this one tastes like actual tomatoes. Crazy huh? A tomato sauce that tastes like actual tomatoes.
A ton of the brand name sauces taste too sweet or are masking the tomato flavor with other spices (could it be the tomatoes just don’t taste good by themselves because they are of lousy quality?)
Honestly, I don’t usually buy the marinara, but last week TJ’s was out of canned tomatoes! This will occasionally happen with other products at TJ’s, but I’ve never seen them out of canned tomatoes. Weird.
So what do you do with the marinara? Put it in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 2 minutes Seriously? Have you not read any of my other blogs? Here’s the trick to make spaghetti that doesn’t turn into a giant ball of noodles:
Heat the marinara in a saucier or large skillet over medium heat. (do I really need to tell you to open the can? if so, go read something else) While it’s warming you’ve already got a large pot of boiling water ready right? Jeez, we’re making spaghetti here people, you need to boil the pasta.
Get a large pot, the larger the better to boil the noodles. The more water the better. Don’t fill it to the top because when you put the noodles in it will overflow. Duh. Three-quarters of the way is fine. Put the lid on (it will boil faster, just trust me and don’t peek) and put the spurs to it (high heat).
Okay the water is boiling now. How do we know if we didn’t peak? Steam. Wait for it.
Marinara is warming (or warm already) and the water is boiling. Throw some salt in the water, or don’t but it’s better with salt. Read your spaghetti package. How long does it say to boil it? A lot of them give a range like: 9 to 11 minutes or something. Here’s the trick and here’s where most people blow it:
Boil the pasta for ONE MINUTE LESS than the lowest recommended number. That’s right ONE MINUTE LESS.
They won’t be totally cooked when 8 minutes are up (using the 9 to 11 example above)–don’t freak out and leave them in there longer! Get them out of the water at one minute before. Just do it. Trust me. I use tongs and just grab a bunch of it, but where do we put them?
Throw them right into the marinara (you did get a saucier or skillet large enough to hold all the spaghetti right?). Yup, just grab a tong-full of spaghetti and dump it right into the marinara. Do not pass Go, Do not collect 200 dollars. At one minute before the lowest recommended cooking time get them out of the water and into the sauce!
Why not just dump the whole thing into a colander and get them out that way? Because we want to save the pasta water in case our marinara is too thick.
Toss the noodles in the marinara to coat them. This will prevent the dreaded “spaghetti ball”. Don’t literally “toss” them in the air, just turn the pasta over with the tongs until all the spaghetti is coated. The pasta will begin to absorb the marinara, preventing sticking. Also, the warm marinara will finish cooking the pasta. (It’s called “carry over” cooking time)
Leave the pasta in the pan for about a minute. Add some of the pasta water to the pan if the sauce is too thick for your taste. We use the pasta water because it contains some of the starch released by the cooking pasta. (that’s why the water is “cloudy”) We want the sauce to be a little thinner, but not “watery”. Or maybe you do want it watery, in that case go follow some other recipe because here we’re going to do it the right way…
That’s really it. Don’t let this sit around forever, get everyone to the table and serve as soon as possible.
The recap:
1. Boil the pasta ONE MINUTE LESS than the lowest recommended time
2. Heat the marinara in a saucier or skillet large enough to hold all the pasta
3. Move the pasta right from the pot to the sauce, turn to coat, cook one more minute
4. Serve with your home-made bread (You did make your own bread right?)
You didn’t make the bread did you? Okay, next time we’re making bread. Relax. It’s easy and cheap!
Some additional DON’Ts:
DON’T add oil to the pasta water before or during cooking. It will not prevent the pasta from sticking, it only makes an oil slick on top of the water.
DON’T add oil to the pasta after cooking. It will only make the pasta oily and prevent proper absorption of the marinara.
DON’T come crying to me if you screw it up the first time, or the second. It takes time to get it right, even though it’s simple.
DON’T season anything until after the pasta is in the pan with the sauce. If you add a bunch of salt and other junk before you get the sauce to the right consistency, you are going to over-season. You can always add seasoning if needed, but you can’t remove it!
DON’T stop reading this blog.
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How to feed a family of four on 40 dollars a week! 