What y’all eatin’ - Coronavirus edition (3 Viewers)

[bonnjer]

Tonight will be chicken, deer sausage, and shrimp sausage jambalaya with a side of crispy Asian salad.

Heck with social distancing. Can I come over?

 

[Dago]

Picked this up today. Nectar of the gods right here...cannot recommend to whiskey lovers enough

 

[Zack Lee]

I have managed to stock up five boxes spaghetti and have tons of meatballs in the freezer. In constant search of sauce. I think I need to get a really good homemade recipe. I know I’ve seen San Marzano recommended if you go canned tomatoes. Are fresh ones good enough yet to try?

 

[Grumpy Old Manatee]

Did you just pick it up to take a sidewise image of it, or did you actually purchase and consume it?

(Hope your back is feeling better)

 

[sonicboom]

I think I'm addicted samosas..."They put a secret ingredient in it, that makes you crave it night and daily".

 

[superchuck500]

I have managed to stock up five boxes spaghetti and have tons of meatballs in the freezer. In constant search of sauce. I think I need to get a really good homemade recipe. I know I’ve seen San Marzano recommended if you go canned tomatoes. Are fresh ones good enough yet to try?

I do Bolognese (meat sauce) and not meat balls and I like it zesty as sheet - but my mom (not Italian) taught me to make it with cut up onions and green peppers, minced garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fresh basil, a bunch of black pepper, and bay leaves. It was great, but a lot of work (and that’s half-assed compared to a real ‘home-made’ recipe).

But then I got lazy and experimented with sauces - I finally found one that works for me. I get the Bertolli organic basil and garlic one, and I add three bay leaves, and a bunch (like seriously a lot) of garlic powder and black pepper - but the end result is just about the same, and delicious . . . but so much less work. I don’t get the same flavor from any other jarred sauce - but it’s what I’m looking for.

I think finding a sauce that you can then improve on in your kitchen is a really efficient way.

 

[Dago]

I do Bolognese (meat sauce) and not meat balls and I like it zesty as shot - but my mom (not Italian) taught me to make it with cut up onions and green peppers, minced garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fresh basil, a bunch of black pepper, and bay leaves. It was great, but a lot of work (and that’s half-assed compared to a real ‘home-made’ recipe).

But then I got lazy and experimented with sauces - I finally found one that works for me. I get the Bertolli organic basil and garlic one, and I add three bay leaves, and a bunch (like seriously a lot) of garlic powder and black pepper - but the end result is just about the same, and delicious . . . but so much less work. I don’t get the same flavor from any other jarred sauce - but it’s what I’m looking for.

I think finding a sauce that you can then improve on your kitchen is a really efficient way.

You speak truth

 

[zeetes]

I do Bolognese (meat sauce) and not meat balls and I like it zesty as shirt - but my mom (not Italian) taught me to make it with cut up onions and green peppers, minced garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fresh basil, a bunch of black pepper, and bay leaves. It was great, but a lot of work (and that’s half-assed compared to a real ‘home-made’ recipe).

But then I got lazy and experimented with sauces - I finally found one that works for me. I get the Bertolli organic basil and garlic one, and I add three bay leaves, and a bunch (like seriously a lot) of garlic powder and black pepper - but the end result is just about the same, and delicious . . . but so much less work. I don’t get the same flavor from any other jarred sauce - but it’s what I’m looking for.

I think finding a sauce that you can then improve on in your kitchen is a really efficient way.

i like zesty. sounds like zeetes on steroids.

 

[buzd]

I do Bolognese (meat sauce) and not meat balls and I like it zesty as shirt - but my mom (not Italian) taught me to make it with cut up onions and green peppers, minced garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fresh basil, a bunch of black pepper, and bay leaves. It was great, but a lot of work (and that’s half-assed compared to a real ‘home-made’ recipe).

But then I got lazy and experimented with sauces - I finally found one that works for me. I get the Bertolli organic basil and garlic one, and I add three bay leaves, and a bunch (like seriously a lot) of garlic powder and black pepper - but the end result is just about the same, and delicious . . . but so much less work. I don’t get the same flavor from any other jarred sauce - but it’s what I’m looking for.

I think finding a sauce that you can then improve on in your kitchen is a really efficient way.

You know bolognese is more than just tomato/meat sauce, right?

 

[buzd]

I have managed to stock up five boxes spaghetti and have tons of meatballs in the freezer. In constant search of sauce. I think I need to get a really good homemade recipe. I know I’ve seen San Marzano recommended if you go canned tomatoes. Are fresh ones good enough yet to try?

There aren’t really any good tomatoes in our local groceries. Rouses occasionally has some decent heirlooms, but the rest pretty much suck.

The farmers market usually has pretty good ones and I recently found fresh san marzano there, which I had never seen before. They were great. Unfortunately, they are shut down for now.

 

[Zack Lee]

I do Bolognese (meat sauce) and not meat balls and I like it zesty as shirt - but my mom (not Italian) taught me to make it with cut up onions and green peppers, minced garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fresh basil, a bunch of black pepper, and bay leaves. It was great, but a lot of work (and that’s half-assed compared to a real ‘home-made’ recipe).

But then I got lazy and experimented with sauces - I finally found one that works for me. I get the Bertolli organic basil and garlic one, and I add three bay leaves, and a bunch (like seriously a lot) of garlic powder and black pepper - but the end result is just about the same, and delicious . . . but so much less work. I don’t get the same flavor from any other jarred sauce - but it’s what I’m looking for.

I think finding a sauce that you can then improve on in your kitchen is a really efficient way.

Bertoli is not bad and I scored one jar of it. My preference is actually Newman’s Own Marinara. I doctor it up a bit sometimes but it’s good right out of the jar.

my mom made us meat sauce when I was a kid but when she married an Italian man, we switched over to meatballs. I like that you can grill some Italian Sausage to give your plate some meat variety.

I experimented with a bolognese sauce that was pretty good a few years back. It had heavy whipping cream in it and was super rich. I don’t think it switched me over to a new favorite though. In most situations, I think people are comforted by the foods they had as Young kids. Chicken and dumplings and fried cube steak come to mind. Meat sauce didn’t really stick like that though.

 

[superchuck500]

You know bolognese is more than just tomato/meat sauce, right?

Sure there's garlic and herbs and diced up vegetables and - I don't know, I'm using the term generally. If it's improper to call browned ground meet in a store-bought pasta sauce doctored up with garlic and herbs "Bolognese" I'll stop.

I don't ever actually call it that when I make it. I don't tell my kids "here's your Bolognese" - I say "here's your spaghetti" . . . though typically its on vermicelli or angel hair.

 

[buzd]

Sure there's garlic and herbs and diced up vegetables and - I don't know, I'm using the term generally. If it's improper to call browned ground meet in a store-bought pasta sauce doctored up with garlic and herbs "Bolognese" I'll stop.

I don't ever actually call it that when I make it. I don't tell my kids "here's your Bolognese" - I say "here's your spaghetti" . . . though typically its on vermicelli or angel hair.

I'm not picking (maybe a little), but Bolognese has a certain creamy mouthfeel (Zack alluded to it) that sets it apart from just "meat sauce" or marianara. It comes from starting with some bacon or pancetta (so adding a nice bit of pork fat), simmering the meat in a considerable amount of wine and milk or cream. The fat and dairy also helps it adhere to the pasta in a really lovely way - which is why you will usually see it served with a wider noodle, like tagliatelle.

Nothing wrong with doctoring sauce out of a jar or a nice meat sauce, and I don't care if you want to call it Bolognese. But pull a few recipes off the the internet, and you will see what I'm talking about.

 

[superchuck500]

I'm not picking (maybe a little), but Bolognese has a certain creamy mouthfeel (Zack alluded to it) that sets it apart from just "meat sauce" or marianara. It comes from starting with some bacon or pancetta (so adding a nice bit of pork fat), simmering the meat in a considerable amount of wine, and finishing it with milk or cream. The fat and dairy also helps it adhere to the pasta in a really lovely way - which is why you will usually see it served with a wider noodle, like tagliatelle.

Nothing wrong with doctoring sauce out of a jar or a nice meat sauce, and I don't care if you want to call it Bolognese. But pull a few recipes off the the internet, and you will see what I'm talking about.

Yeah, apparently the real stuff uses cream and wine and fat noodles.

Honestly, I always just called it meat sauce but recently my kids have been eating meat sauce at restaurants (they used to just eat noodles) and they often call it Bolognese but when it comes, it just looks like meat sauce.

Which is a good segue into just how much range in quality there is with Italian restaurants - am I right? And you can never tell - some of them are just purely phoning it in, just sad. Our favorite place is very unassuming, it's in a strip shopping center. Decor' is cheesy and prices are modest. But the owner is the chef and he's in the kitchen every night. The waiters are Italian, like English-as-a-second-language, Italian. And the food is very consistent and tasty as hell.

 

[buzd]

Yeah, apparently the real stuff uses cream and wine and fat noodles.

Honestly, I always just called it meat sauce but recently my kids have been eating meat sauce at restaurants (they used to just eat noodles) and they often call it Bolognese but when it comes, it just looks like meat sauce.

Which is a good segue into just how much range in quality there is with Italian restaurants - am I right? And you can never tell - some of them are just purely phoning it in, just sad. Our favorite place is very unassuming, it's in a strip shopping center. Decor' is cheesy and prices are modest. But the owner is the chef and he's in the kitchen every night. The waiters are Italian, like English-as-a-second-language, Italian. And the food is very consistent and tasty as hell.

Well, technically it IS meat sauce, and it looks like meat sauce.

Agreed on the range of Italian restaurants. You can find greatness and mediocrity in any level of Italian restaurant. Usually, a big warning sign is that the majority of the menu is tomato based, but even that can be great if the chef knows what he's doing.

As an aside, I've really gotten into making my own pasta lately (I just wish I had more room for carbs in my current diet). I've gotten so I can go from flour to pot in under an hour and a half - that includes a 30 minute rest and some drying time for the noodles. Fresh noodles that can cook in three minutes make a huge difference, although they are certainly a luxury of time.


Recent shrimp scampi (scratch wheat noodles):