Fantastic pasta sauce

[Jessie]

I just came home and decided to make some homemade pasta sauce.  It was lowcal and yumorific!  The entire pan of sauce was ~500 calories.

First, I sauteed up half an onion and three cloves of garlic.  Then I added ~1/2 a pound of turkey burger (you seriously can not tell any difference when it comes to sauces and stuff, for half the calories!).  After that browned, I poured in one can of diced tomatoes, without draining them (petite diced would have worked better, in retrospect).  I let them cook down for a while, but not quite long enough, because I was hungry.

Oh, I added salt, black pepper (would have used red too, but timothy doesn't like it), some garlic powder, and a good bit of basil.

When that had cooked down for a while, I added two 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce, more salt and pepper and basil, and some oregano.

Simmered for 15 or so, and my god, it was good.

[Dry then Catch]

This sounds delicious but it also sounds like way too many ingredients and instructions for a man to handle.  am i rite


how many calories does a pan of pasta sauce normally contain?

[Jessie]

1/4 cup of ragu is ~150 calories.

[Gamplayerx]

Bring on the Ragu!

How many cups is a pan of homemade sauce?

[Jessie]

I don't know.  Fourish, maybe?

[Gamplayerx]

I don't know.  Fourish, maybe?

Damn!  Who eats 4 cups of pasta sauce? 

[Jessie]

Nobody, crazy!  Timothy ate some too, and there's a bowl full of it in the fridge.

[Gamplayerx]

And now what are you going to do with it?

[Jessie]

I will eat it for lunch, or for dinner another night.

This is what we cooking folk call 'leftovers.'

I know, it's confusing.

[BigDun]

Homemade pasta sauce gets better after storage in the fridge overnight.

[Gamplayerx]

I will eat it for lunch, or for dinner another night.

This is what we cooking folk call 'leftovers.'

I know, it's confusing.

Freaky.

[VikingJuice]

I don't know.  Fourish, maybe?

Damn!  Who eats 4 cups of pasta sauce? 

I love my pasta swimming in sauce.  I just love sauce. 

Jessie, your sauce sounds very yummy right now.

[Bennyhana]

This sounds delicious but it also sounds like way too many ingredients and instructions for a man to handle.  am i rite

women be shoppin'!

[ReBurn]

Tastes like heartburn.

[swolt]

I don't know.  Fourish, maybe?

Damn!  Who eats 4 cups of pasta sauce? 

I love my pasta swimming in sauce.  I just love sauce. 

Jessie, your sauce sounds very yummy right now.

gay

[Jessie]

I made this sauce again tonight, but added some chopped fresh spinach and a little bay leaf.

It is yummy.  I can't wait til it's finished simmering.

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[BigDun]

I made a Bow Tie pasta yesterday that others might be interested in:

1 box bow tie pasta

4 Tbs olive oil
1 cup fresh black olives (from your neighborhood grocery store's olive bar) pitted and chopped
1/2 jar oil packed sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cup pine nuts
4 ounces store bought reduced fat pesto
Crumbled feta cheese
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

(all measurements are estimates. I don't use measuring devices when I cook dishes that I have made up)

Cook the bow tie pasta until al dente and drain.

While the pasta drains, heat the olive oil in the same pot used to cook the pasta and simmer the olives, sun dried tomatoes, and pine nuts. Once the flavors have had a chance to be released, add the drained pasta back to the pot and mix well, adding in the pesto.

When everything is nice and warm, serve in a wide bowl covered with crumbled feta and Parmesan cheeses.

Be careful about adding salt at the dinner table since the olives and pesto can be very salty.

I won't touch this stuff since I hate olives and am not a big fan of foods cooked with any kind of nut, but my wife says it is absolutely delicious.

[Gamplayerx]

I made bowtie pasta yesterday, too!  It was soooo good.  Bertolli Complete Skillet Dinner for Two Chicken Florentine & Farfelle - really, amazingly good. 

[dazie]

You COOKED??

[Jessie]

You COOKED??

I think she heated.

[Gamplayerx]

You COOKED??

I think she heated.

And stirred!  I totally had to stir it after 5 minutes.

[JJ]

Is poultry women's universal favorite meat? Other than man-sausage?

...this girl in the cafeteria yesterday said "I loooove my wieners blllack" about 1 second before her face turned purple and the table had a laughing fit.

[Beefy]

from your neighborhood grocery store's olive bar

I don't think I've ever encountered such a thing.

[dazie]

from your neighborhood grocery store's olive bar

I don't think I've ever encountered such a thing.

We have one at the local Mercantile.

[BigDun]

from your neighborhood grocery store's olive bar

I don't think I've ever encountered such a thing.

Our Safeway and Super Fresh have them. The Schnucks in Memphis has them too.

[Gamplayerx]

from your neighborhood grocery store's olive bar

I don't think I've ever encountered such a thing.

Our Safeway and Super Fresh have them. The Schnucks in Memphis has them too.

All of our grocery stores do, except for Trader Joe's.

[Alice]

We don't have olive bars.  I've never even heard of them.

[Jessie]

Never heard of them, and don't care to.

[Gamplayerx]

If you had good olives, you might change your tune.

[nishi]

hampla, i seem to remember that jessie is ixnay on the olivesay

[Jessie]

Olives, much like coffee, are gross.

[Beefy]

I like olives, but any food left out open to the public for extended periods of time worries me.

[Gamplayerx]

Nah, they're in brine.  All publicness is thwarted.

[JJ]

This one time we went to a restaurant and were given olives in a small ceramic bowl as an appetizer. They were the most amazing olives ever. Super fruity tasting, not too salty, not too harsh, a nice light purple color.

I used to hate the idea of olives, but that was before I knew what they really could be. All I had ever had were disgusting green commercial olives and really bad black olives.

Eventually I had some real olives and all was good.

What's in a name?

[dazie]

I got what hinted at being really good olives a while back- big greek ones stuffed with bleu cheese.

OMG they were gross.  I was so disappointed.

Other than that though, I've never eaten an olive I didn't like- even the green ones with pimiento inside.  (my mom told me the red was bird tongues.  Best way EVER to get a kid to eat olives)

[JJ]

I got what hinted at being really good olives a while back- big greek ones stuffed with bleu cheese.

OMG they were gross.  I was so disappointed.

Other than that though, I've never eaten an olive I didn't like- even the green ones with pimiento inside.  (my mom told me the red was bird tongues.  Best way EVER to get a kid to eat olives)

There's a brand from california called Mezzetta. They make these almond stuffed green olives in white wine with lemon and herbs. So the jar has a lemon slice at the bottom, has basil and whatever else floating in it, and the olives each have a blanched almond in the middle. They are in.cred.i.ble. OMG I haven't thought about those for a while. They're soooooo effin' good. Try some if you can.

[dazie]

I got what hinted at being really good olives a while back- big greek ones stuffed with bleu cheese.

OMG they were gross.  I was so disappointed.

Other than that though, I've never eaten an olive I didn't like- even the green ones with pimiento inside.  (my mom told me the red was bird tongues.  Best way EVER to get a kid to eat olives)

There's a brand from california called Mezzetta. They make these almond stuffed green olives in white wine with lemon and herbs. So the jar has a lemon slice at the bottom, has basil and whatever else floating in it, and the olives each have a blanched almond in the middle. They are in.cred.i.ble. OMG I haven't thought about those for a while. They're soooooo effin' good. Try some if you can.

Have you tried the garlic stuffed ones from Santa Barbara Olive Co?  They're good too.  The jalapeno stuffed ones are fantastic sliced on pizza.

Damn.  Now I want olives.

[Alice]

I made the best dirty martini ever once.  I drained half the brine out of a jar of olives, filled it up with vodka and let them sit for awhile.  Made the dirty martini 3 weeks later unbelievably good.

[dazie]

ooo- that sounds really good.

Damn.  Now I want a martini too!