Being Italian, I really thought this dish was going to be a breeze. I mean, seriously, how hard can pasta be for a girl who bleeds marinara? What I didn't take into account was that the conglomeration of a few unconventional ingredients would throw me for a loop and the pasta-to-sauce ratio would nearly lead to my demise. But have no fear, paisano! I fixed that shit and I fixed it good.
Round 1: Red Sauce & Noodles
The question at hand: Can one make a pasta sauce with canned tomato soup? Hmmm...well, Spaghetti-Os come pretty close, right? I figured I'd give it a shot. And at that moment, my great grandmother Angelina rolled over twice in her grave.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb lasagna noodles
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes
4 tbsp milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
Noodles
1. Boil lasagna noodles until tender. Drain. Stack in sets of 4-5 noodles and slice lengthwise into strips. And watch your fingers! (Yeah, you.) Them noodles is hotsy totsy.
2. Microwave spinach until heated through. Add to noodles and stir to combine.
Red Sauce
1. Melt butter in a large saute pan. Add flour and mix until combined.
2. Add tomato soup, diced tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning, chili powder, and black pepper. Simmer until sauce begins to thicken.
And huzzah! A sauce! And a pretty delicious one at that. I didn't have spaghetti or linguini and I needed to save all my other noodles for other recipes. Plus, I really though this would be a cinch and a good way to send the lasagna noodles to sleep with the fishes. The problem is that these two don't exactly play well together. Upon tasting, my reaction was a whole-hearted and resounding "Meh."
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| Behold! My first attempt. Looks delish, right? Weeellll.... |
The positive end bit was that I realized the problem -- not enough sauce on a very, very starchy pasta makes for a very...ehhh...gluey experience. But did I say FML and throw it out? No! I triumphed. Defeat, I laugh in your ugly face!
Round 2: White Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1. Melt butter on medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
2. Add flour and stir until combined.
4. Add mozzarella gradually, stirring until all cheese is melted and mixed in.
5. Remove from heat and add salt (more if you like things saltier...). You can add pepper to taste, but I prefer to add the pepper and a bit more salt to the dish when it's plated.
Booya! Angela just made her first white sauce! And an awesome one at that. I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but this sauce is bomb. Straight up nuclear deliciousness. And added to the pasta combo I'd made before, it stayed good.
Now, I have a sneaking suspicion the white sauce would be great on its own, but I think the mixture of white and red made a nice marriage of tomato and creaminess. I'm definitely interested in trying this again, though, with just some bare naked pasta; I'm thinking linguini would work well. I'm pretty proud that not only did my first attempt at white sauce do well, it was my very own recipe and was the result of trusting my instincts.
Round 1
Official Grade for Red Sauce: B+
Official Grade for Red Sauce with Sliced Lasagna Noodles: C-
Round 2
Official Grade for White Sauce: A
Official Grade for Total Combo (Red, White, & Pasta): A
Okay, so I had an epiphany! I know what you're thinking - "How could a substantially lower life form such as yourself, Sagan, be capable of such a profound emotional and intelligence laden activity as an epiphany?" Well, here it is.
ReplyDeleteLast week, the Fam and I had the rare pleasure of eating at Buca di Beppo and, though I love the place dearly, they stopped making my very favorite dish, Macaroni Rosa. That dish, like yours, has a White and Red sauce combination that tingled the tongue in ways that Italian food rarely does for me, being the Indian food lover that I am. The do, however, make another dish that is similar to Mac Rosa called "Spicy Chicken Rigatoni."
Though not a true Arabiata dish (they tend to be a bit spicier and more to my liking), it did have a bit of a kick and, more importantly, a White / Red sauce combination that made it DELIGHTFUL!!!! I liked this so much that I vowed to try reproducing it at home. The problem - how to make the white sauce?
Thank you for this recipe! I am so going to make this today, and I'm going to add the pepper necessary to reproduce the heat. I even have a Costco-sized bag of rigatoni since we like that more than spaghetti anyway!
If you'd like, I'd be happy to document this and send to you a write-up of the results. Just let me know. :)
Yes, definitely let me know how it turns out. I'm pretty sure I wrote down all the ingredients I used, but since I've only made it once and I kind of added things as I was making it, I'd like to know if I wrote it down right (and if I DID get it right, if people other than me would like it).
ReplyDeleteOkay. The sauce is wonderful, but it needs at garlic. I added Garlic Salt, but then it was too salty. Next time (and there will be a next time, for sure), I will use at least 3 cloves of chopped garlic sauteed in the butter until it is slightly caramelized.
ReplyDeleteNext, adding the flour to the butter makes butter dough. Once I did that, I remembered how I make gravy at Thanksgiving, and in that case I slowly add the flour to the water while stirring constantly until all the flour is added. This keeps the flour from clumping. So, next time, I'll add the flour to the milk, then add the milk to the sauce. No worries, though, because I was able to deal with the clumping last night. :)
Finally, I made the Spicy Chicken Rigatoni ala Buca Di Beppo, and it was WONDERFUL!!! I'll put the recipe and instructions below, but know that you won't want to add the extra crushed red pepper at the end as a garnish because it was plenty spicy without it. :) Here it is:
Spicy Chicken Rigatoni
ALEX RODRIGUEZ - BUCA DI BEPPO RESTAURANT
Ingredients:
1/4 c Olive oil
1/2 Tbs crushed red pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbs chopped garlic
6 oz chicken, sliced
3/4 cup Marinara sauce
1/2 cup Alfredo sauce (Your White Sauce)
2 tsp butter (I didn't use this)
1/4 cup peas (I used about 1 cup because I like peas. :-) )
1 lb Mezzi Rigatoni pasta, cooked according to package directions
additional 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (for garnish)
Instructions:
1. In a sauté pan, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper and garlic and sauté just long enough for garlic to caramelize and red pepper to release flavor into the oil.
3. Add sliced chicken and sauté briefly to coat in spices and garlic.
4. Add Marinara Sauce first and then Alfredo Sauce and bring to a simmer. Cook until sauce thickens slightly and chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165°. (I cooked 15 minutes at medium / low)
HELPFUL HINT:
Add Marinara to the pan before Alfredo Sauce. This will help keep the Alfredo Sauce from breaking down
5. Turn off flame, add butter and peas and incorporate into sauce.
6. Using a rubber spatula, scrape sauce from the pan to the pasta in a large bowl. Garnish with crushed red pepper and serve.
YUM!