"The Lady From Napels Red Sauce" and "Spaghettini with Spicy Eggplant"

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So this weekend, on Saturday to be exact, I did a huge first for me: Homemade Spaghetti sauce from scratch.  No bottled stuff here!  It wasn't hard, and made the house smell wonderful (I love garlic) but took a couple of hours.  Here's what we did (ingredients and amounts on post a few days ago before I went shopping)
I put the olive oil, garlic and onion in the big pot on medium high and let the onions get soft while making sure I didn't burn the garlic, then added the oregano and bay leaves.  I let that sit a minute or two and smell really lovely then added the canned tomatoes, red wine (I used a Beringer Merlot, not expensive but Lyle likes drinking it and I've heard people who really like their food use only wine they would enjoy drinking when they cook) and honey.  Also a grind or two of pepper but the recipe warns not too much or it will make the sauce bitter.

Simmer this covered for 30 minutes and stir occasionally.  Then use a potato masher to mash up the whole tomatos in the pot (if you don't have a potato masher you need to cut up the whole tomatoes before putting them in the pot!).  If desired add chopped olives (I didn't use them because while the family like some olives black isn't the favorite here and it says optional in the recipe).  Cook another hour stirring occasionally.  Taste and adjust the seasoning for your taste.  May need some extra salt especially if you don't do the olives.  Remove from heat and stir in basil, remove bay leaves (Lyle didn't know you don't eat these....silly kid.)  Serve with pasta of choice. 

This is the finished product, we used about half for dinner that night and the other half is in the freezer.  The cookbook author says she makes a double batch and freezes so she always has some on hand.

So I made Spaghettini with Spicy Eggplant for dinner on Saturday after making the red sauce in the afternoon.  Eggplant is a new thing for me.  I know it's used a lot in Italian cooking, but really I have zero experience and I think it turned out good.  The first thing you do is peel the eggplant and slice horizontally into 1/4 inch rounds.  Then place in a colander in the sink in a single layer and thoroughly salt them and let them "sweat" about an hour. 

I had to use 2 colanders to keep a single layer and I had no idea what it meant by sweat it out.  It sucked a lot of the water out of the eggplant and left kind of a brown tinted water in the bottom of the colanders (mind you I have no idea if the eggplant I bought was a "good one" because I've never bought one before and I only had two options at Kroger and Walmart had none.)  Next lay out paper towel and place the eggplant on it and pat the tops to dry them off.

Place canola oil in a frying pan covering about 1/2 inch and heat to medium high.  When the oil is warm, slip in the eggplant and let it brown on one side, flip and brown the other.  Remove from the pan on a plate with papertowel and pat the excess oil off.  (Note here:  I cooked mine so the outside was crispy, but later you cut them up and put them in sauce and the inside was still moist and it got kind of squishy, so next time I might almost over cook them outside so the inside has a better texture.)

When the eggplant has cooled to touch, slice into strips and add to The Lady from Naples Red Sauce to warm on stove.  Boil your favorite pasta- we really like Schar brand Penne and Fusilli because everyone will eat it (Lyle says it doesn't taste too much like rice, which is his biggest complaint for grain replacements for Eli, he doesn't like rice).  It's got a nice flavor (almost like regular wheat pasta) and doesn't overcook easily (nice for the mom who might have to drag her 18 month old off the table at any given time instead of cooking).

We didn't do spaghetti noodles because this brand doesn't have them here, and I can only get it at Walmart here in town. 

So the sauce- you can either add chili pepper flakes (we had crushed because I couldn't find flakes) while it's simmering the last minute or put on the side for people who want a little bite to their pasta to put on the plate later (what we did). 

So take the cooked pasta, toss it with the sauce, then toss in fresh parsley and voila!  Dinner's ready and packed full of veggies! :) 

We all loved the spaghetti,  Ella called the eggplant pieces yucky but tried them twice first. (If she says yuck before trying the rule is clean your plate!  She learned quick!) 

We were very concerned how Eli would do, since before when having spaghetti or other tomato products (Katsup, chili) he would make a big mess on his face and gobble it up but start to scratch and cry.  We weren't sure if this was other ingredients in the products before we knew he was allergic(spaghetti sauce with soy, chili with hamburger, etc) or if he was allergic to tomato.  Well, he had two huge platefuls and no scratching!  Then, no broken out face or legs the next morning!  So we think, hope, pray that tomatos are good as long as we're super careful with what's with them because he loves these foods.

Sunday Lyle made a big pot of "chicken type" soup.  He put a leftover chicken breast in some water, put in a can of corn, can of peas, leftover cabbage from the veggie stock, celery and carrots from the fridge, a few bay leaves, some worchestershire sauce, the fusilli pasta, salt and pepper.  It was interesting and not in a bad way.  Eli and I each had two bowls as did Lyle.  It had a little spicy kick to it that was good, but I don't know what exactly did it and if it could ever be replicated!  Ella didn't like it because of it (she's a bland girl at the moment while Eli seems to be relishing these new flavors, at least right now).  So Ella got a bowl of cheddar soup made for her.  I think I need to start working with her more on simple meal type things she can make herself if she doesn't like her dinner.  The rule I remember growing up was if you don't like dinner eat nothing or cook yourself something.  While mostly soups and sandwiches I learned how to fend for myself early and I think it would do Ella good too to start on that path a little now, although with these new foods she definately needs to really try stuff too. 

It's monday now, the kids are at my parents and Lyle and I enjoyed hamburgers made of BEEF with CHEESE (muenster cheese too!) on white bread!  Ahh!  The horrors!  :)

New year is starting good and yummy!

Oh yeah, side note on this very long post.  Eli saw the dietician today and he gained some weight since he saw her two months ago, close to 9 oz and 1/2 inch in length.  So that's good.  Wednesday we have a checkup with Dr. Downs so we'll get officially tallys and about that time in the week I need to find new recipes to try next week.