Monday, March 17, 2008

Cooking with Clemenza

"Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick."

Everything I know about spaghetti sauce, I learned from Pete Clemenza. Which is to say, not much.

I tried it recently with half a clove of garlic and a diced onion. First I cooked the beef and took it off the pan. Then I added the onions and garlic. Next, a 1/2 cup of red wine reduced to 1/4 cup. I added two spoonfuls of tomato paste and a couple diced roma tomatoes, thyme, cumin, cayenne, and flour for thickening. Plus a pinch of sugar, of course.

Result: not nearly thick enough, very strong winy taste. Tomato paste makes me trepidatious; maybe add more? (serving size I'm shooting for is 2-4).

Here's another food blogger's approach.

3 comments:

EmilyCC said...

My favorite ingredient for spaghetti sauce is goat cheese. Here's my version

EmilyCC said...

hmmm...that didn't work: http://chevrefennel.blogspot.com/2008/02/pasta-add-ins.html

Cirroc said...

Nice recipe. Good tip about the zucchini. There's a moment in Goodfellas where Henry Hill, the narrator, describes pasta made with garlic sliced "so thin it liquefies in the pan." Is that even possible? I've never been able to do it. But then again, I'm not Italian.