Un-Sauce

I love pasta.  I love it so, so much.  Whenever I scroll through collections of recipes, I always wind up collecting more pasta recipes than anything else.  It's easy, endlessly variable, and yummy!  I recently got to thinking about a new pasta mixing that I thought would be great.  Fortunately, Steve (though not big on pasta himself) is always willing to try what I cook.  Bless him for that.  Truly.  I finally got the chance to try it out and it was every bit of what I was hoping.

I call it an Un-Sauce because it reminded me of regular spaghetti sauce, but without the tomato sauce.  I've even been thinking of variations for the next time.

Here's what you need:

1 lb hamburger meat
1/2 white onion, diced
Garlic to taste
1 or 2 cans diced tomatoes (I only used one because I had some fresh grape tomatoes that I cut up too)
Bay leaves
Fresh basil
Fresh rosemary
Red pepper flakes
Pepper
Salt
Louisiana Hot Sauce (Tobasco would also be good)
Pasta

Super easy assembly.

1.  Brown the meat
2.  When the meat is almost done add in the onion and garlic; this is about the point that I put the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water; I did not drain the fat off the meat--I think if you wanted to, you might add some olive oil so the onion would have something to cook it
3.  Stir in your tomatoes and bay leaves
4.  Stir in your basil, rosemary, red pepper, black pepper, salt, and hot sauce
5.  Add to cooked pasta

Typically when I make pasta, I only cook what will be eaten because I'm not a huge fan of leftover noodles, and I'm a firm believer in everyone determining their own mixing to noodle ratio.  Therefore, the noodles went into the bowl, then we put our own amount of un-sauce on top.  I added some extra hot sauce and fresh grated parmesan.  But when I had this for leftovers, I didn't add either.  It was great both ways.

I also left the bay leaves in the concoction when I put it in tupperware.  Obviously, I'll pick them out when I go to eat the leftovers.

One variation that I am very excited to try some time is to use half a pound of hamburger meat and half a pound of Italian sausage.  Naturally, you could make this with only Italian sausage.  Chef's choice.

I meant to take a picture of this when I first cooked it, but I was so excited to try it that I forgot.

Anyway, it was really good.

Comments

  1. I love the idea of just having the ingredients you might have in a sauce without the actual sauce! We each a ton of pasta in the summer - so fast and easy - and a lot of it is just diced fresh tomatoes, herbs, and fresh grated parm. I'm going to try it your way next time!

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