THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
Supplies:
2 Pots (or 1 if you're daring)
1 Pan (or another pot. or the same pot. see below)
Wooden spoon
Measuring cup (or something else that holds liquid)
Food You Should Probably Buy:
Pasta
Crushed tomatoes in a can (semi-optional)
Instant Tomato Soup (not optional)
An onion
Olive Oil
Some garlic (or garlic powder)
Milk (optional)
Butter (optional)
Corn starch (optional)
Bread crumbs (optional)
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Herbs and Spices:
Dried Basil
Dried Oregano
Garlic Powder
Crushed Red Pepper
Things You Can "Commandeer" From a Dining Hall:
Salt
Pepper
Milk (depends on the dining hall/how daring you are)
Honey/Sugar (you can get a bunch of this from any coffee place)
Quick Note about the above:
The four spices mentioned above are AWESOME! And I would highly recommend buying them. A good sized shaker in $2-$5 in Wegmans (or any other grocery store...) If you only feel like buying 1 or 2, I would say garlic powder is first in line, then crushed red pepper, then oregano, then basil. Also, you are obviously more than allowed to substitute fresh herbs for any of the dried herbs; you will just have to use more as the dried herbs have a more concentrated flavor.
Okay. Now that you have your ingredients, it's time to start cooking!
Step One: Making The Dorm Smell Excellent (Or how to quick-caramelize onions and garlic)
Slice your onion in half. Chop up one half and save the other half for a later meal. There are multiple ways to chop an onion. One involves hacking at the poor vegetable until you are bawling your eyes out and the other is French. Honestly, as long as the onion is chopped, this will work. (If you want to be really fancy and French, google "How to Cut An Onion")
Next, chop/mince a clove of garlic. Again, there are fancy ways to cut garlic, but my technique is to just keep on cutting it until it is small...
Put all of these goodies into a pan (or pot) with some olive oil, a bit of salt, and some pepper. You should have enough OO to coat all of the onions/garlic.
Begin cooking this mixture at a low heat so that the onions "sweat" but do not brown/burn. These will take a while. If you are cooking them in a pan, just let them go for a while while you move on to step two, but if you are doing this in one pot, you'll have to wait a while before moving on.
Keep stirring the mixture as it cooks. The onions be done in a range of time. The earliest is when they become translucent. The latest is basically anytime before they burn. When caramelizing onions, they kind of get all sweet and tasty and golden brown. If you are doing it right (lowish heat), you really can't over cook them. More on this later.
This part also smells really awesome. My housemates were drawn to it when they got home.
Step Two: Making a Sauce Base
When I was making dinner today, I was originally going to make simple couscous with some onions and garlic. I had already put the liquid in the pot when I decided to change my mind (which was why I made so much!)
Start by putting a cup of water, a quarter cup of milk, and a tablespoon or so of olive oil into the pot. Turn the stove onto a medium to low heat. The sauce should simmer almost the whole time. (If you don't know, simmering is bubbling a bit, but NOT boiling.)
Next, add the package of instant tomato soup and stir it in until there are no more clumps and the mixture is pinkish.
(The first time I made this, I used half as much liquid and it was much faster, so if you are in a hurry and don't have cornstarch (will explain soon), you can half the liquids and eat sooner!)
At this point, you should start adding in the spices. The longer they sit in the liquid, the more their flavors will develop. Add in a few shakes each of basil, oregano, and crushed red pepper. Also add in a bit of garlic powder. (If you did not put garlic into the onion mixture, add more garlic powder.)
Last, add in a few pinches of salt and pepper. Stir.
Now we play the waiting game...
At this point your two parts just need to cook for a bit. Keep stirring them both periodically.
Whenever your onions are done (or whenever you want them to be done) spoon them right into the sauce pot. Stir. (There will be a lot of stirring today....)
Step Three: Developing Some Flavah and Texture
Keep stirring the saucy mixture. After 5 or so minutes, it should begin thickening a bit and start to smell yummy. If you like bolder flavors, throw in some more oregano/basil. If you like spiciness, add in some more red pepper. At this point, add in a bit of honey/sugar if you have it. The sweetness will deepen the flavor, making it even more excellent.
IF YOUR SAUCE IS VERY RUNNY (liquidy, watery, etc.): Thickening the sauce can be done in two ways. The first way is by waiting and letting the sauce simmer forever, but that sucks. It will lead to a better flavor, but it takes forever, and we all know you don't have that kind of time. The second way is to use cornstarch (or flour). No matter which one you use, be sure to NOT ADD IT IN ALONE! I did that once and got clumpy and awkward dumpling-like things. What you need to do is make what is called a "slurry". You do this by mixing a tablespoon of cornstarch with a tablespoon of cold water and mixing. This will form a pasty consistency that can be safely/easily added to the warm sauce. (The proportions of this mixture should be about enough to thicken these proportions of liquids.) Add the slurry in a little bit at a time and then stir. Wait a bit for the sauce to thicken before adding more.
To add even more flavor to the sauce, I added in about a third of a can on crushed tomatoes. These are not that expensive, and save SO much time in tomato chopping. Add them in and stir.
Don't be afraid to taste the sauce along the way! If you like tomato soup, it will taste great from the beginning!
Step Four: Simmering and Pasta
Making this sauce can tae a variable amount of time. Like with the onions, it can really be done at almost any time. (Honestly, you can throw the tomato soup in with half the liquid, heat it, and put that over pasta and that would kind of work...) My technique is to wait until it smells truly excellent, and then start on the pasta, so it has even more time to cook. Remember: the longer it cooks, the thicker and tastier it gets! If it starts to get too thick, you can add some water, milk, or broth (chicken, vegetable, etc.) to thin it out.
When you feel like you want to eat in 15-20 minutes, start boiling water for the pasta. For this amount of sauce, I made just under a pound of pasta, but you can always make more or less and save the rest! Cook the pasta a bit al dente (hard). I do it about a minute less than the lower number on the box (so if it says 7-8 minutes, I cook it for 6).
When you start cooking the pasta, add a bit of butter to the sauce. Stir. (And taste! Tasting your dish along the way is a key to becoming a better chef!)
Step Five: Wonder Sauce Powers, ACTIVATE!
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it (don't rinse it) and save a bit of the pasta water. (Pasta water is high in starch content, and is a great addition to many sauces because it helps them adhere to the pasta better.)
Pour the now fantastic-smelling sauce over the pasta and stir the pot so all of the pasta is coated. Keep the heat on low so to keep thickening the sauce. This will also finish cooking the pasta.
When the pasta is all coated and tasty-looking, add a few spoonfuls of breadcrumbs and some parmesan cheese. Stir. This will finish thickening the sauce and make it even tastier (if that is possible...)
Step Six: EAT!
Put some pasta into a bowl, put some breadcrumbs and cheese on top, and enjoy!
Extra points if you get people coming into the kitchen saying it smells good. Bonus extra special points if you get a date out of this dish.
And now.... PICTURES!
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