Transformed Pasta Recipes

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

One-Two Pasta

6 to 8 servings

This plan starts with a straightforward, under-an-hour spaghetti sauce for a pasta meal. With the addition of roasted red peppers, a quick puree and sauteed shrimp, a more sophisticated sauce can be pulled together in minutes.

Serve the plain spaghetti-sauced pasta with steamed broccoli on the side, and use the steamed broccoli as a garnish for the red pepper-shrimp version.

Basic Spaghetti Sauce With Pasta

Makes about 3 1/2 cups sauce (including enough for the roasted red pepper and shrimp version)

You can strain and use this as a pizza sauce; add ground beef or sausage for a meat sauce; or add sauteed diced carrots, zucchini and celery for a vegetable sauce. Or this sauce can be the start of chicken cooked with peppers, a great puttanesca or lasagna.

The base of the sauce is strained tomatoes (free of seeds and peel), either Pomi or BioNaturae brands, found alongside the canned tomatoes at Whole Foods Markets, Wegmans and many specialty and Italian grocery stores. Freshly grated Parmesan cheese is always nice to serve with this spaghetti. Stored in a resealable food storage freezer bag, the sauce can be frozen for 2 to 3 months.

2 teaspoons mild olive oil

3/4 cup finely diced onion

2 small cloves garlic, flattened

3 cups (a 26.4-ounce package) strained tomatoes, sauce as Pomi

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