Hand-Down Spaghetti - Skirt in the Kitchen

With your dad’s hand-me-down ’70’s yellow can opener that he gave you back in the survival days of your metropolitan era, open both ends of the tomato paste; carefully push one end out through the other end, easily plopping the thick paste directly into the 12″ skillet of spaghetti sauce that your husband of his bachelor years taught you to do… and you just made it better.

… This will help. For sauce, always have plum tomatoes. This brand is superb if you are going to purchase canned tomatoes for your spaghetti sauce.

And, yes, my husband did teach me how to make pretty darn good sauce– good spaghetti. I was the girl who used to buy the jars of spaghetti sauce, a good brand, however, take it home and think my spaghetti was truly homemade. That seemed to be enough. Then I met him– finally. He had everything just right in his kitchen as far as the taste goes. All of the pots and pans were dirty; plates, knives and forks, included. He was a true bachelor. I moved in with him right away, and I could not find the sink if water had not been flowing out of the faucet. So I parked his favorite lounge chair in the kitchen, by the sink, so he could chat with me as I washed his dishes after he cooked spaghetti for us– He chatted and enjoyed the view. Smiling, still, as I remember, there are a lot of things I thought I knew until I met him. A lucky girl am I, and he is lucky in a lot of ways… and it’s not just the bedroom I am talking about. (Sorry, Mom!)

Hand-Down Spaghetti ~

– Skirt in the Kitchen –

2 pounds ground beef

1 white onion

Salt & pepper

2/28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes

Tomato ketchup

Minced garlic

Hot sauce

Parsley

Oregano

Basil

Thyme

sprinkle of paprika

Dark molasses

2-3 cups leftover sauce from Eggs in Purgatory recipe (Scroll down or choose from side margin (September). It is a repeat of this sauce, basically. After several days that the Eggs in Purgatory sauce has been refrigerated undisturbed, this spaghetti is fantastic with it, mixed with the new sauce of this spaghetti recipe. There is just something about it.)

DIRECTIONS:

Brown and crumble approxiamtely 2 pounds ground beef with–

–1 white onion and salt & pepper.

Drain meat.

Add 2/28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes with juice, mashing with clean hands and fingers while pouring in– or with a cooking utensil;

12-ounces tomato paste, several squirts of Heinz Tomato Ketchup, hot sauce, minced garlic– of which, I do not add in the beginning, just to prevent it burning…

Stir the sauce, well, add Italian seasoning of parsley, oregano, basil; even, thyme and a sprinkle of paprika. Put in 1 tablespoon of dark molasses (Unusual, I know…), then let come to a slight boil, turn down and simmer…

Now taste and add more salt and pepper if needed, and more Italian seasonings if so desired, whether dry or fresh herbs.

Next, put in three or four tablespoons of tomato pesto sauce, which is thick and just the finishing touch to this. This will make it complete. If you still are not fully content with your sauce, then adjust more seasonings, salt, pepper, hot sauce and tomato pesto– but do not add more molasses than stated. You may even use cayenne pepper; sometimes that is what I use as well as the hot sauce.

Let simmer down a bit; in the meantime, cook your angel hair al dente. Seems to taste better with angel hair than the thick spaghetti noodles. Salt the water; do not put oil in the water– It only keeps the angel hair from absorbing the sauce. So omit oil in water.

When cooked al dente, mix the right amount of pasta in with the sauce.

FYI: The molasses and tomato pesto was my idea, not his… <3