Spaghetti Sunday

As far back as I can remember, every Sunday was Spaghetti day. This goes all the way back to our times in the old house in Conrado Benitez but over the years, our own house version takes over. Today I made some exactly the way i wanted to and here it is.

1 medium onion
1 stalk large celery
half a medium carrot
1/4 kg ground beef
2 strips Bacon
1 pc Italian Sausage (or any pork sausage with sage)
1 tsp Tomato Paste
500 gms Tomato Sauce
1 medium green bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
300 gms spaghetti

Of course it starts with bacon, diced small and fried in olive oil until almost crisp, set aside but leave the oil. Now do your mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery. As it sweats you can dice all the remaining vegetables and sausage. It's mostly assembly from this point on. Add your ground beef and fold in the mirepoix. Don't mix it around too much, you want the beef to brown. As this browns, sprinkle half a tsp of Italian seasoning and half a teaspoon of dry basil leaves. blend in. Add the diced bell peppers and crusehd garlic, and mix them in as well. Make a small well in the mixture and put the tomato paste in the center to let it fry in the oil until it starts getting fragrant. Fold it into the mixture. Now the tomatao sauce. I like to stir the mixture while pouring in the tomato sauce. Turn the flame down and let it come to a boil gently.



Come back to the mixture after 5 minutes and add in the Italian sausage and stir. Add in the vinegar and sugar and allow to simmer over the lowest possible flame. Stir often like every 5 minutes for about half an hour until the oil starts separating from the sauce and its ready.

All you need is pasta and grated parmesan cheese and you're on your way.

I like this with a Sangiovese (spaghetti wine of course!) or a nice Southern hemisphere Shiraz

Voila!

Cabbage stir fry

Some of the best dishes are really made from the simplest of ingredients and the more complicated the more prone a dish is to go wrong and you'd never figure out what happened. My kids want to eat more vegetables so here's a quick simple stir fry that highlights the sweetness of cabbage but still allows the earthy flavors and goodness to come out. Here's all you need.

1 med or 1/2 large cabbage head
1 med white onion
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp sugar
pinch of Pepper
1/2 tsp Cornstarch dispersed in 1 tbsp of water
Oil for sauteeing

Start by preparing all your ingredients cut to size. dice the onion, cut the cabbage by splitting in two, removing the tough core and cutting into rough 1 inch squares. They dont have to be perfect, in fact sometimes I slice them like coleslaw. Start heating your pan, put about a tbsp of oil then add the onions, as they become translucent add the cabbage. Toss several times and when most of the cabbage leaves have some oil onto them, add about 1/2 cup water and cover for 1.5 minutes.

When you lift the cover the cabbage should have started taking on a slightly deeper color. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and sugar and saute/toss the mixture in the pan. after 30 sec more stir the slurry of cornstarch and water then add to the cooking cabbage. Toss and saute in the pan until you see the sticky sauce you've created coating all the cabbage. Turn into a suitable size pan and serve.

See, thats it simple and healthy!