I have been cooking regularly at home. I have been making regular Indian dishes made at regular Indian homes. I am a very lean kid and I think I know now why. I do not like regular.
I decided I would make a mean and unregular pasta for dinner tonight. I went out shopping for the works.... wine, rosemary, oregano, basil, cheddar etc etc. As luck would have it, before I could begin shopping I had to rush back home to let S into the house. I had no ingredients but the pasta I wanted to make and have. In no mood to get out of the house again, I decided to improvise. And I did.
The only alcohol I had at home were tequila, whisky and vodka. I decided vodka was the most food friendly. I run a very basic household... sometimes so basic that the only food to be had is bread with cheese slices. With this in mind, I rummaged through the refrigerator. No onions, no vegetables... only tomatos, olives and jalapenos.
- I took a little olive oil in a pan and tossed in sliced garlic let them brown a bit and added my champion ingredients (olives and jalapenos).
- When these were about done, I poured in a generous quantity of fairly expensive vodka. I took care to take the pan off the burner before I did this, lest the sloppy but good cook in me made me spill some and create a fireball.
- To this strong smelling concontion I added pureed tomatos (it is very difficult for me to list out the quantities I used as I never follow a recipe).
- I let this mixture thicken for about 20 minutes (that is how long it took).
- Add in some pepper as it will give the base a nice healthy colour and taste.
- Toss in pasta boiled in salted water (penne, fusuli...not spaghetti)
In case you realise later that the sauce is not enough to cover the pasta evenly, you may want to save some of the salted water you boiled your pasta in and add it to the sauce. Do not add too much as the water is very salty and you risk losing the flavour of the sauce due to watering it down.
Place the pasta on a plate and grate some cheddar cheese onto it. Serve it with warm garlic bread (I had neither the cheddar or the garlic bread).
To everyone's surprise (S & I) the pasta was pretty good.
