"down home " cooking

Every cook, myself included, falls into the "it's not good enough" trap. We all have the dishes we cook for ourselves, or our partners and ourselves, but wouldn't DREAM of serving to company. Absolutely not. They're too "common," too "pedestrian," or whatever. We all have our reasons for saying "oh, I would NEVER serve this to people." I have them too. And you know what ? Today I had it brought home to me that if you cook well, don't do that.

The background. I had spent a very industrious weekend in the kitchen, making many things I'm proud off, including meatballs, from six pounds of ground meat. When the meatballs were all done, I had some sauce left over - not tons of it, but maybe two cups. It was of course enriched with the flavor of all of those meatballs, and it was really good, but there was very little of it. And I was also faced with a Tuesday when I couldn't get home until very late at night, and cooking our usual fish was out of the question.

So, putting things together, I made a baked pasta dish of the sauce, some left over cheeses (my favorite mozzarella and fontina), and parmesan on the top. Now, as it happened, one of my puppies was over, and I had a whole bunch of food that was more than enough for two, so I shared it, not thinking anything of any of them.

Today, in talking to David, he said to me , essentially, "Girl, you've been holding out. What's all this fancy stuff when you get down to down home and do things like that pasta?"

Frankly, I was stunned, and then delighted. I really didn't think of it as a dish that anyone would really like, but that they would use it as "filler," when time was tight and making a real dinner was out of the question. But the reaction that David gave me was so positive, I have to share it. I haven't heard from the other puppy, Keith, yet, but I will... And I hope he liked it as much.

Learn something new every day.

Ok, now as I said, I happened to have two cups of very rich meat sauce available. You won't always have this. But you should always have some tomato sauce in your fridge. It's liquid gold. Never be without it. So if you have to use plain tomato sauce, I would suggest that you brown about a quarter of a pound of grass fed, ground beef, and mix it into two cups of the tomato sauce. Put that aside. Then, cube a half pound of each of mozzarella and fontina. These are both very good melting cheeses, and I wouldn't suggest changing them. Use these . I think you'll be happier. The play of these two cheeses when they melt is kind of magical.

Put that cheese aside, and then boil a pound of a shaped pasta. I used fusilli. You could use rigatoni, or fusilli, or farfalle, or something like that. Don't cook it past aldente. It would be better if you erred on the side of too firm.

When the pasta is done, then combine it, the cheese and the sauce all together. Pile it into a pan that looks too small. I thought long and hard about using a 9x13, but I used a 9x9. When you have something this thick, the center will stay nice and soft. I think this is one of the reasons that the dish was so successful. Finally, sprinkle a good amount of parmesan on the top of that.

Then bake it for forty five minutes, at 375. The sauce and cheese will have begun to bubble, and the parmesan will have disappeared into the sauce.

Take it out and let it cool. It's going to take a while, this holds heat. When it's cool enough so that it feels like it's at room temperature, cut it into squares. Four if you're feeling generous, eight if you're serving appetizers , and you're done.

This is a variation on a classic dish of leftovers, that every Italian cook in the world knows how to make. Now you have mine.

And you learn something new everyday. This is something I WILL serve people. Thank you David.