I finished my 24th vampire book I’ve read in the last six months today. All this time, I’ve kept wondering why the vampires haven’t sought me out yet. I have a sneaking suspicion it may be due to the amount of garlic I eat. Vampire tales are mixed on their interpretation of their supernaturals ability to tolerate garlic, but the consensus holds well that they don’t like humans who’ve eaten a lot of garlic. In case I have any vampire readers, come get me. I’m ready to be bitten, we’ll work out the garlic stuff later. I’m worthy, I promise and maybe this decade I can get into cooking with lemon grass or chili peppers instead.
My spaghetti sauce is very similar to the sauce I used in my lasagna [1] post. I change the consistency of the tomatoes and add some onion, and I didn’t manage to roast my garlic tonight, instead sauteing chopped garlic. Tonight’s version was also made with ground beef, but I think I am firmly back in the camp of ground turkey only. I’m still not satisfied with the ground beef I can procure.
I’m also using a whole wheat pasta these days. Kayln’s Kitchen [2] has a nice summary on the pasta I also use. Back when my friends, Lisa and Bobby, started on this crazy Sugar Busters diet [3], I was overwhelmed with the whole wheat options in their home. Flours, pastas, etc…. but when the darn gestational diabetes took me down, I vowed to integrate some of these options to my lifetime diet. There are places that they work for me, like this spaghetti, and there are places that they don’t – the White Whole Wheat King Arthur [4] flour pancakes I made this morning. Then again, I don’t like pancakes anyway (unless I’m pregnant) so perhaps the White Whole Wheat flour pancakes would have tasted good to someone. My husband knows not to complain in the morning, the kids are not nearly well enough trained to care. They’d eat dog food if they’re hungry enough, all while swearing it’s fabulous. I think of pancakes like the light and fluffy ones served at IHOP and whole wheat flour, in my experience (IMO), has a much denser, sturdier texture. Whole wheat absolutely adds fiber and protein and other goodness not found in run of the mill plain white flour but it takes some experimenting to make it work. Look out tomorrow for my zucchini bread with whole wheat flour results.
1 lb ground beef (or turkey)
28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp bacon grease
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 white onion, finely diced
Brown meat in a saute pan over medium high heat. Drain. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, bacon grease, sugar, salt, and pepper. Cook on lowest heat for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, cook onion in olive oil on medium heat until soft, about 7 minutes, add garlic cook another minute, then scoop into the sauce. Cook on low another 15 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions and serve sauce over drained pasta.