Book Seventy-Three: The Silver Palate Cookbook

by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins



                        Pasta Sauce Raphael



I received this book as well as The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook as a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law many many years ago. The latter has been used so much that the binding has come undone and the book is now in two pieces.

I quickly scanned the recipe earlier in the day and did not take note of the amount of time this needed to cook. I did not start dinner till late and so I cut the cook time in the first step by half, cooking the tomatoes till they broke down and melted into the onion mixture. Unless you have wonderful tasting homegrown tomatoes, you can save a lot of time by using canned. I'm sure they would work just as well.

The recipe says it makes enough sauce for 4 pounds of pasta. I cut the recipe in half and felt it was just enough for 1 pound. This coming from someone who does not like to drown their pasta in sauce. I did substitute spaghetti for tortellini; this may be the reason for the discrepancy.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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Book Fifty: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

by Marcella Hazan


        Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil


Once again feeling a bit guilty for choosing such an easy recipe. I always feel that for blogging purposes I should opt for a more elaborate recipe to post. Simple however can be good or better than some of the more intricate and time consuming recipes.

I don't know what it is about restaurants, they always serve the pasta swimming in sauce - and this I am not a fan of. I prefer my pasta to have a light coating of sauce; so it needs to have bold flavor. You can not go wrong with fresh basil and garlic; and in my case a bit of chili pepper for heat. The recipe does not call for chili pepper, but I do like my food spicy so I added a homegrown Thai Chili.

Marcella instructs you to tear the basil leaves into small pieces. I resisted the urge to julienne them and tore them as instructed - a bit tedious; I would julienne them. To julienne basil, you stack several leaves together, roll and slice. Much faster than tearing each leaf into pieces.

Having to peel the tomatoes may sound tedious, but really there is no effort involved. To do this you just boil the tomatoes for about one minute or less (until the skin cracks), drain them, and as soon as they are cool enough to handle,  slide the skin off - and they do slide off effortlessly. Do be careful chopping the tomatoes, for they are a bit slippery without their skins.

(Edit: This is even better the next day!!)

Success meter (1-3): 3

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