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IC : Weblogs : DillyTante : "Pasta Sauce."
Pasta Sauce. (9)
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Posted by DillyTante on Wed 4 Oct 06, 10:38 PM
I'm having a tranquil evening. I'm pottering, or perhaps faffing. Either way, it's calm and pleasant. Dog is snoring on the sofa and the telly is mumbling in the background, I've been mooching around on IC while considering the several things I'd like to blog about - and I'm making an Italian style tomato sauce.
What I'd intended to blog about, is the Demanding and Dominating Old Menace I'm landed with. An elderly woman in her mid-seventies, who is determined to learn how to use her brand spanking new computer (which is after only month, already in a disastrous mess), so she can produce Her Seminal Novel!
It seems that when I oh so rashly offered to give her some pre-arranged 'Free Lessons', she interpreted the offer to also include a Free 24/7 Help Desk.
I've had to be firm but kindly. So I'm feeling firm, kindly and tranquil tonight.
I will write about this lady at some point. Any reader can consider this a bit of a trailer. An extraordinary tale of a woman who should have been a lifestyle Dominatrix - but isn't. The star of this feature length planned epic, took a leading role here
and made her first appearence, here
This planned feature length version to come to a blog near you. Soon. Once the dentist unlocks my teeth.
As I was mulling over my mulling Italian style tomato sauce, I caught myself just in time. Absent-mindedly, I was about to add just a bit too much sugar.
I've inserted an invisible pause here. This is for the collective gasp of horror from the food purists in my limited readership. 'What?' I hear them choke. 'You can't put sugar in an Italian style, tomato sauce. It's so wrong!'
I like it though.
It's not as if I've not thoroughly investigated the whole Italian style, tomato sauce thing. I've been making Italian style, tomato sauce for the best part of twenty years. I've followed recipes, I've invented my own. One year I made gallons of it from organically grown tomatos, onions, garlic, basil and oregano. Grown by this author's own hands. The same author coincidentally, who hates gardening. I was a bit keen in those days.
After decades of deliberation, I concluded that I like to put sugar in my pasta sauce. I can offer details as to why, but it would be tedious. I also like to add what's probably a bit too much freshly ground black pepper, too.
I really love food.
There are very few things I won't enjoy, if I'm in the right mood or hungry. From junk to haute cuisine.
Shellfish for example. Dear me, shellfish. Crab, lobster, prawns, scampi you name it. If it looks like an alien and has a shell, I probably love it.
My favourite food, is any food which has a party on my tongue. A dinner companion once lost my attention for at least sixty seconds at the beginning of a meal. This was after I'd put my first bite of fillet steak into my mouth, covered with home-made Bearnaise sauce. The one and only time I've ever made it. I concentrated very hard, was very serious and rigidly followed a recipe. I even used a proper whisk. I can't believe my luck, but it was perfect. (A bit of a faff though and I'm a lazy cook these days).
Anyway. For around sixty seconds, I sat stunned. The room near as dammit swam with pleasure. Meanwhile my dinner companion continued to bang on about lorries and height restrictions, oblivious to my ecstasy.
Ah well.
I really do like food.
For me food about sensory pleasure and usually better shared. It's about new experiences. And sadly I acknowledge that I will never manage to try everything there is, before my toes turn up. Which reminds me, I really must investigate tripe as I've not eaten that yet and won't require a trip to the Amazonian Rain Forests to procure it.
I would try pretty much anything once, as long as I was assured it wasn't poisonous. I would try bulls eyes (yes, the eyes of bulls), chocolate covered insects, reptiles, undergrowth, mould... you name it, if offered I would probably give it a go. Just to see.
I do hope however, that I won't be offered anything still alive and kicking. This resolution of mine means I'd have to give it a go when to be perfectly honest, I'd prefer not.
That said, there are no end of things I didn't like for which I've subsequently acquired a taste. Olives and sprouts are just two. Not together of course, but come to think of it, why not?
Oh and that's a point. Don't even think about telling me that I must have a dry white wine such as for example Chablis, with my shellfish. If I want to if I fancy it, then of course I shall. If I don't I may choose a robust red or even a pint of lager.
The nicest birthday breakfast I ever had, was egg and bacon sandwiches, washed down with champagne. It did write off the rest of the day unfortunately, but that's by the by.
Having lost the other half of the Wine and Food Afficiandos, I shall move onto dining out.
I'm pleased to announce that I know how to use all the silverware. And napkins. Been doing it for years. Sometimes I really enjoy the ceremony of a formal dinner out. Crisp table cloths, shiny china and glassware. Candles and flowers.
I've also enjoyed sitting cross-legged on thick carpets with Iranian friends, eating something deliciously rice and lambish. Followed by almost poisonously strong black tea, served in small cups and sucked through sugar cubes. Loudly.
Someone once made me egg and chips, so right for the moment, I nearly fell in love with them on the spot. And don't even get me started on the best fish and chip shops.
Food is a wonderful thing, isn't it? We've got to eat, but there are just so many different things we can eat and ways we can cook and serve it. Food can cheer us when we are low, simply satisfy an appetite or enhance an already excellent time.
And sometimes, just sometimes if the time, the place, the company and the food is just right for us, we can be blasted with vivid and delicious sensations.
The way I see it, as long as I don't dribble or make horrible noises while eating (I draw the line at horrible eating noises, apart from instances connected with tea and sugar cubes), I don't see why anyone should mind what I eat, or how I choose to eat it.
Same philosophy applies really, to putting sugar in my pasta sauce.
 Edited Wed 4 Oct 06, 10:53 PM by DillyTante
Replies
4 Oct 06, 11:29 PM
electricfog
UK, 4 yrs
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Which reminds me, I really must investigate tripe as I've not eaten that yet and won't require a trip to the Amazonian Rain Forests to procure it.
Nooooo! Tripe has the same texture as carpet underlay, but the same taste as white (not pink) blotting-paper soaked in diluted malt vinegar. When you try to bite into it, it just sort of squidges and squishes.
Eccchhh. |
4 Oct 06, 11:36 PM
DillyTante
UK, 3 yrs
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electricfog wrote:
Nooooo! Tripe has the same texture as carpet underlay, but the same taste as white (not pink) blotting-paper soaked in diluted malt vinegar. When you try to bite into it, it just sort of squidges and squishes.
Eccchhh.
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Ah but y'see, it might be that I've got a taste for white blotting-paper soaked in diluted malt vinegar. With the same texture of carpet underlay. I admit I've not had underlay on my 'must try soon' list of consumables.
I won't know for sure unless I try it. Um. The tripe I mean. I'll stick carpet underlay on the bottom of the list, somewhere above live wriggling things, but below liver. Dilly
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4 Oct 06, 11:42 PM
PFLsAgain
UK, 3 yrs
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DillyTante wrote:
Which reminds me, I really must investigate tripe as I've not eaten that yet and won't require a trip to the Amazonian Rain Forests to procure it.
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Ugh. Don't do it. It rates right up there with Sea Slug as one of the two worst things I've ever eaten. The taste is inoffensive but the never-ending rubberyness was more than I could take. Texture is really important in food. I do tend to like eating something that I think might eventually deign to disintegrate enough for me to swallow it in anything under two foot long rubber band lengths.
The single best thing I ever had was stir-fried jelly fish tentacles in ginger. Oh boy I had the great good fortune to be on a table of 10 people at a Chinese wedding, 8 of whom were vegetarian. Top tip - never be vegetarian at a Chinese wedding! My day was made when 10 whole lobsters appeared. Despite 8 refusals I can assure you that no shell went unopened.
But I digress. I still maintain you can't make a decent chilli without cinnamon and dark chocolate, but the latter may be my own personal addiction. Convention can be pretty stultifying if you let it. "I learned what every dreaming child needs to know - no horizon is so far that you cannot see above or beyond it." ~ Beryl Markham (first pilot to cross the Atlantic solo the hard way - East to West)
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4 Oct 06, 11:50 PM
DillyTante
UK, 3 yrs
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PFLsAgain wrote:
My day was made when 10 whole lobsters appeared. Despite 8 refusals I can assure you that no shell went unopened.
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Oh my good god! You lucky, lucky woman. I've only once had chinese lobster and it was - I'm sorry, I'm dribbling too much to type clearly.
But I digress. I still maintain you can't make a decent chilli without cinnamon and dark chocolate, but the latter may be my own personal addiction. Convention can be pretty stultifying if you let it.
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Cinnamon? I wonder how that would mix with the cumin I put in mine? Hmmm.
Ooh. Let's hear it for the food anarchists! 
I'm still going to try tripe though. Dilly
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5 Oct 06, 11:17 AM
Maudie
UK, 7 yrs |
DillyTante wrote:
I'm still going to try tripe though.
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The other night I had lambs intestines with spaghetti in a restaurant next to the old abbatoir in Rome. All the little tubes of intestine lay snuggled among the strands of spaghetti. Each of the two types of tube had a slightly different taste and texture. Quite interesting, but fell far short of a "delicious" rating. |
5 Oct 06, 1:53 PM
DillyTante
UK, 3 yrs
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Maudie wrote:
DillyTante wrote:
I'm still going to try tripe though.
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The other night I had lambs intestines with spaghetti in a restaurant next to the old abbatoir in Rome. All the little tubes of intestine lay snuggled among the strands of spaghetti. Each of the two types of tube had a slightly different taste and texture. Quite interesting, but fell far short of a "delicious" rating.
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Hmm. Perhaps I'm perverse, but the more negative reviews I read about this variety of offal, the more determined I am to try it for myself.
Doubtless there will be another blog from me at some point, announcing that yes indeed, everyone was right and tripe is well...tripe. Dilly
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5 Oct 06, 7:57 PM
corriander_THM
UK, 5 yrs |
I have been moved to tears by a few, a very few, foods. One of them was a fillet steak, too. Buttery and soft and yet so damned good. Home made bread, with butter melting on it - and yes - I made it. Who can beat a plate of scalding hot beans on toast made with seedy bread and dripping with butter and dotted with black pepper, just after all the rich food of Christmas.
But Christmas has cake and stilton and port. And my Beloved's home made sausage casserole, rich and meaty with the sweet taste of swede and carrots.
I love morrocan food, full of apricots and almonds, and I love a decent smoked back bacon butty, and liver and bacon, withbuttery mash (anyone guessed that I like butter)
corr
"those who call the shots are never in the line of fire" Ani di Franco
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5 Oct 06, 8:32 PM
DillyTante
UK, 3 yrs
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corriander_THM wrote:
I have been moved to tears by a few, a very few, foods. One of them was a fillet steak, too. Buttery and soft and yet so damned good. Home made bread, with butter melting on it - and yes - I made it. Who can beat a plate of scalding hot beans on toast made with seedy bread and dripping with butter and dotted with black pepper, just after all the rich food of Christmas.
But Christmas has cake and stilton and port. And my Beloved's home made sausage casserole, rich and meaty with the sweet taste of swede and carrots.
I love morrocan food, full of apricots and almonds, and I love a decent smoked back bacon butty, and liver and bacon, withbuttery mash (anyone guessed that I like butter)
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Oh good grief. I couldn't bring myself to snip any of the above. That was out and out food porn corriander!
Butter is a weakness for me too. I've just remembered Eggs Benedict and I'm on the point of moaning!
I've not eaten dinner yet. Can anyone tell? Dilly
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5 Oct 06, 10:47 PM
MarcusStrapp
UK(CB), 4 yrs
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It is a sensory pleasure always bettered for sharing. Well it is for me.
It's been my good fortune to enjoy some damned fine cuisine, but given a choice, a good meal in poor company or even an excellent meal with no company is bettered by poor a meal in good company, every time.
Bacon buttie dearie?
DillyTante wrote:
For me food about sensory pleasure and usually better shared.
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Conventional wisdom is often more about convention than wisdom.
-- Marcus Strapp
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