On Spaghetti, by #fritz.

by #fritz

In order to make good pizza dough, one must also love food on some level. We make choices when we consume frozen or convenience foods, or spend the time to make something truly exceptional.

We are professionals, and yet this is our home kitchen, in a third-floor walkup, in some grimy, northern industrial town in the northern hemisphere. My singles ad reads, ‘just a big guy who loves to cook’ and after that I keep it pretty short indeed.

With roughly five ounces of lean ground beef, a 400-ml tin of plain old tomato sauce, #fritz is making spaghetti sauce. There are onions, green pepper, a bit of crushed celery and exactly five olives in there. I put all the veg into the pan on top of a teaspoon of oil, cracked black peppercorns and maybe a faint sprinkle of seasoning salt.

With a dash of lemon juice and one of Lea & Perrins, the addition of very gentle touches of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, black pepper, basil, oregano, the recipe is just enough to make two good-sized portions. I soften up the veggies before adding the beef to brown it.

The last thing that goes in is the actual tomato sauce.

This is a hell of a lot better than freezing sauce that would ultimately be thrown out, or eating leftover spaghetti five days in a row. Okay, bear in mind that estimating the actual dry noodles so that they correspond, ah, is a whole ‘nother problem. We make up the sauce, let it simmer, then turn it down and turn our attention to the noodles.

Fritz, for those who haven’t met him, is our Swiss-born Cordon Bleu chef, whom we adopted as a very small boy and he lives in the broom closet. I’ve always liked to think that he killed a man, but the fact is that he flies home once or twice a year, (he visits his crazy old mother), and other than that, he really is quite all right…

If one must have an imaginary friend, then they should at least make themselves useful. #fritz serves that purpose very well.

I can get a single portion of frozen spaghetti for $2.99, and sometimes less. My spaghetti blows theirs out of the water with one salvo. And man does not live by bread alone.

As for the home-made bread using #superdough the dough was frozen. I pull it out of the freezer the night before, just as in the pizza recipe. I let it thaw in the fridge, pull it out in the morning and let that rise on the counter. This was my own dough, although we do have another crew.

At some point we spray a bread pan with butter-flavoured, non-stick cooking spray, although a liberal use of liquid cooking oil is also effective. (The first time you try it, you won’t put enough on.)

This loaf was also sprayed on top, which affects the colour. It smells good while baking. This loaf was done by turning on the oven to 375 degrees, opening the door, and gently placing it on the shelf.

Twenty-three minutes later, after turning it once on the lengthwise, the bread is done. This is a soft, chewy and flavourful bread that is especially good for toasting.

I reckon a couple of slices of #artisanal_toast with peanut butter is worth about $22.00 in any pretentious café in Silicon Valley.

 

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