Making Spaghetti

Soooo...Important things...Spaghetti.  Cooking food is important.  If you can learn to cook a few things for a group of people you can bring people together and it feels...religious in a lot of ways.  Everyone likes to eat good food.  People like it even more when they don't have to cook (especially women) and generally everyone loves to be served.  For men it is kind of an expectation that you will learn to master the grill.  This is bullshit macho stuff but learn how to cook a steak and make a burger and perhaps bratwurst and if you can figure out how to Bar B Q boneless chicken bread without it being dry as dirt, you are a better man than I am.

I like to cook.  None of you seem to have the propensity (maybe Laura) but you should at least (even in this carryout culture) develop the ability to cook a few things when you entertain, if nothing else to take the pressure off of your spouse.  For this purpose I give you "spaghetti".  Learn how to cook it and add a loaf of decent bread and simple salad and you have this thing we call dinner.

1.  Find A Sauce:  For years I just made it with Ragu.  It is cheap and widely available.  I would add a  can of Busch to it and perhaps some garlic and an onion but... there are so many good sauces now i recommend you ask someone at a store or Italian market what their favorite is and sample a few.  I have fallen in love with "3 Brothers".  You can buy it at Vivianos.  It is a little sweeter than I think I formerly liked but it is well seasoned and does not need to be doctored.  That being said, cut up half an onion and press a clove or two of garlic in it because garlic and onion always make everything better.


2.  Get some noodles.  I have tried all kinds of specialty pasta.  For spaghetti you don't need it.  Buy cheap pasta, whatever the store brand is.  Don't go too thin with the angel hair but for spaghetti you don't need to buy craft pasta or make your own.

3.  Get some protein.  I recommend spicy salsizza from Vivianos on The Hill but really any italian sausage is fine.  If you cannot find that feel free to use hamburger but no matter what protein you use, fry it up in a black cast iron skillet and really car maize the meet.  When it starts to brown cut up 1/2 a white onion with it.

http://www.vivianosmarket.com/grocery.html

4.  Get some kick ass Reggiano Parmesan.  I am sure there are better and worse Parmesan's but the grocery store alway has decent ones now.  Get a small block of it and grate it out fine or buy some decent park that has been grated for you but in all cases try and stay away from Kraft and store brands and that poisonous powder stuff.


So, heat the sauce. If there is sauce stuck in the jar put a mouthful of beer in the jar and swish it around.  Bring to a boil quickly and then set on lowest possible heat.  Consider cutting up 1/2 an onion and another pressed clove of garlic in it.  Stir it occasionally but pretty much leave it alone.  Minimum 1/2 hour simmering.

Brown the meat and as I said, caramelize it thoroughly.  Add the onion and garlic after it is starting to brown and I recommend a heat slightly higher than medium.  Once thoroughly browned set it aside and cook your pasta.

I am a shitty pasta cook.  I always mis-estimate how many noodles we need.  Your mother believes that since it is so inexpensive that you should always make the whole package so... get a large pot (the noodles will overwhelm anything else) and bring the water to a high rolling boil.  Throw in a small handful of kosher salt.  Cook it at least 20 minutes.  Start tasting it for toughness after 15 minutes.

When spaghetti is done, drain it in a collendar and rinse it with cold water.  dump it in a large bow and dump about 1/2 of the sauce on it and mix it thoroughly.  Put the meat, the pasta and the rest of the sauce on the table in separate containers to be passed.  Passing is an essential part of eating.  Even though we never had a problem with talking it forces a certain amount of conversation and that is key.  This is easy and it can be fun.  You can do it in an hour to an hour and a half.