recipes

[Zombie]

Ooooh, recipes! I pretty much always wing it, unless I am baking (baking is too science-y to wing). But with that in mind, here is a pasta sauce I make on a regular basis:

Annie's World Famous Supah Amazing Bacon Sauce (OMG BACON)

1 pound bacon - smoked is fine, peppered is fine, just don't do maple, unless you're disgusting.

Big onion - I like using red onions, but white and yellow ones will also work

Mushrumps - We like baby bellas, but regular old white mushrooms will work fine, or you can chop up some large portabella caps

Big can of plain tomato sauce - You can do diced or crushed canned tomatoes, and maybe add a smaller can of sauce, but I don't like chunks of tomatoes in things, so I do not do this.

Pesto - Any basil-based pesto will do, whether it's homemade or store bought.

Pastas - Look for a noodle shape with grabby stuff on it to grab the sauce. We like radiatore.

Garlic to taste - FRESH GARLIC mmmm. But you can use garlic powder if you don't have fresh. I suppose garlic salt would also work, but be careful, as bacon is salty enough on its own.

Parmesan cheese - Shakey cheese in a can is fine, but fresh is better.

Directions:

Get pan big enough to hold all your sauce stuffs. Chop bacon up into bite size pieces, toss into pan over medium heat. Chop up onion also into bite size pieces, and throw into pan with bacon when bacon is just starting to get crispy-ish. Let the onions soak in the bacon grease for a little bit, and then you can drain the pan a bit before continuing, if that's how you choose to live your life.

After that's done, if you're using fresh garlic, now is the time to mince that stuff up and throw it in there. Make sure it doesn't burn, because burnt garlic is awful. If you are using the powdered stuff, it can go in whenever you get around to it. Then slice up mushrooms same way, toss in when onions are bordering on translucent.

When your mushrooms are starting to get soft, dump your tomato stuff in there and mix it up really well. Then get your pesto and dump THAT in there, too. I usually do around 4-5 big spoonfuls, which is usually enough to get the sauce to turn a weird brown-green color. Weird brown-green color here is good, because it's the combo of the bacon and the pesto flavors that makes this awesome. Mix it all around! Mix! Mix! Mix! Yay!

Cook yer noodles according to directions on box while you're making the sauce. Get plate of noodles, dump large amount of sauce on it, top with cheese, love your life for the next however long it takes you pour it all straight down your throat!

Variations:

If you don't like bacon, you can go to hell - I mean, you can replace it with other things. Pancetta or prosciutto work really well, but those are much more expensive than plain old bacon. You can slap a pound of browned ground beef or veal or even turkey in there in place of the bacon for a tasty meat sauce. And I've had great success for vegetarian friends with replacing the meats with veggies - just do something with a bit of a bite to it, like zucchini or eggplant.

Next time, perhaps I shall post Annie's Supah Awesome Vodka Sauce of Hope and Wonder?