I want the frim-fram sauce with the aussen fay

I’ve mentioned before the emails I receive from various listservs. They can be overwhelming if I’m not careful but they do provide a wealth of information. An email I receive only once a week from NonsenseNYC is a minimalist, ugly text-based email. But it includes a list of free or cheap events going on in the city. About a year ago, a Nonsense email led me to Hey, I’m Walkin’ Here!, a group that meets every other week to go on 20 mile walks through different parts of the city. Given my own (insane) penchant for walking, I joined their Facebook group… and then had conflicts with (or just plain forgot about) scheduled walks. I joined the group for my first walk a few weeks ago and for my second last weekend. They’re a fun crowd, relatively within my age group and I have had a great time on both walks. I’m hooked.

The walk last weekend took us through central Staten Island, starting at 8:45AM and ending around 7:00PM. When I left them at the end of the day I was, understandably, exhausted and starving. Specifically, I was craving a hearty dish of pasta and meat sauce.

Since I moved to this city I have made my own pasta sauce. But I taught myself how to do this and they are not based on anything other than what tastes good to me and what I logically think should go into pasta sauce. I shared one of my recipes here last week. From that you can easily see my standard sauce base: tomato sauce, onion, garlic, salt, pepper. Depending on what I have in the kitchen other things will be thrown in randomly, usually to a tasty end. My method for making pasta sauce is obviously not the way pasta sauce is supposed to be made but it tastes good to me, is cheap, and is a single girl’s dream in the kitchen (mainly because I cover it and let it spit all it wants while I tend to other things).

Aside from throwing sauteed chicken into the mix, I have not yet made a pasta sauce with meat. But last Saturday I was craving red meat. This is extremely rare (haha) so I usually give in to these red meat cravings when I have them, figuring my body knows something I do not. I browned the meat and added it with diced tomato into my usual base… and it was bland. Not horrible. Just bland. Solution? Adding red pepper and burning my mouth into submission.

However, this bland non-entity of a meal set me on a mission: figure out a real (and relatively simple) way to make a meat sauce. Foodgawker - devil of my google reader feed that it is – turned up a nice selection of recipes to choose from. Luckily, I’m extremely picky once I have an idea in my head so narrowing down my options was not an issue.

Peeling and de-seeding tomatoes? I am only starting to come to some sort of understanding with tomatoes so let’s not push it.

Heavy cream? I’m not in the mood for a creamy sauce (for once) and I’d have to figure out another recipe to use up the rest of the cream before I go out of town next week.

Ingredients that I don’t keep in my kitchen? Maybe later. I like recipes that are realistic, that come from similar pantries. And this is pasta sauce for one! I don’t need anything fancy to start this experiment.

What about a basic recipe, adjusted and perfected after many uses in many different dishes, that is normally made without measurements or calculations? Yes. Other than the can of diced tomatoes, I have everything I need in the kitchen! Maybe it’s not traditional but it’s more formal than my own pasta sauce so this is the place to start.

Ingredients (for the most part, halving all of her measurements)

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2  of a 6 oz can tomato paste
• Oregano
• Basil
• Salt
• Pepper

I browned the meat with the veggies while heating up the other ingredients over low heat. Once the meat was done, I drained it and tossed it in with the tomato mix, covering it until the pasta had finished cooking.

Result: delicious.

Granted, even though I halved the recipe I now have a few more servings of sauce left. So this will easily feed me until I leave for Seattle. Such is the life of a single person kitchen. Le sigh.