SAUCE PREPARATION
Fresh Ingredients
½ medium fennel bulb, finely chopped
½ medium sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
3-4 good sized garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about ½ to full lemon)
juice from ½ lemon (fresh DO NOT use that nasty squeezy bitter stuff)
***yes, this is a good time to invest in a Microplane zester (about $15 but great for zesting, parm cheese, ginger, etc) & a reamer
Herbs & Spices
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
Canned Ingredients
1-28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (I like the organic fire roasted kind)
6-8 UNMARINATED artichoke hearts, quartered (frozen, thawed, are even better)
optional: ½ 14 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
optional: ½ 14 oz can of black olives, drained and sliced
1-2 T tomato paste to thicken, needbe
Protein (Optional)
I like an Italian veggie sausage (veggie, turkey, meat…) for this…use your judgment as to how much you need. Cook the sausage fully in the following to make it extra flavorful.
1-2 ladles full of your sauce blended with 1 T tomato past
½ t crushed fennel seed (yes, a mortar and pestle or leave it out)
½ t crushed red pepper
PASTA PREPARATION
I strongly prefer whole wheat fettuccine or penne with this sauce. Cook it hard: bring lots of water to a rolling boil, add a healthy pinch of salt to raise the boiling temp (it helps the pasta cook without getting gummy). Once the water is salted and boiling hard, add your pasta and immediately stir. Watch the time, you want it el dente.
If your pots are not really heavy, you might find you can’t hold the kind of heat you need to cook whole wheat pasta so it tastes good and has good texture. No worries – use traditional semolina.
No comments:
Post a Comment