The story below is from our January/February 2020 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
These easy recipes will have guests thinking you’ve been hard at work in the kitchen for hours.
My most recent food adventure is learning how to make homemade pasta. On any given day my pasta may be perfect or full of imperfections, but one thing I know for sure, my pasta sauce will be perfect. How can I say this with such conviction? I’ve made my Mom’s marvelous from-scratch pasta sauce for years. To me, it is perfection, but I don’t always have time to spend hours stirring a pot of sauce, so I created these recipes that have all of the flavor with much less effort.
For now I will leave the pasta making to who I believe are the local pasta aficionados – Ashley Cuoco and Chef Stephanie Fees. Cuoco is a food photographer and blogger. She has the best basic pasta recipes as well as some fancier flavorful sauce recipes on her blog (ashcuoco.com). Chef Fees owns Scratch Pasta Company that makes and sells fabulous pasta in Lynchburg. Her pasta is available at Wine Gourmet, Roanoke Natural Foods Co+op and online at scratchpastaco.com.
As for my homemade pasta being imperfect, Cuoco made me feel much better when she told me, “I believe handmade pasta should be imperfect. You’ll always know it was made by loving human hands.”
Magical Marinara
This sauce is pure magic when you don’t have time to make marinara from scratch.
- 28-ounce can Cento crushed tomatoes
- 6-ounce jar basil pesto
- 6-ounce jar sun-dried tomato pesto
- ½ tablespoon Greek seasoning
Place all ingredients in a large pot. Stir to combine ingredients. Cook over medium low heat for 10 minutes. Serve warm over your favorite pasta. This magical marinara is also a delicious condiment on Italian sausage sliders.
Italian Sausage Sliders
Yield: 12 sliders. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon Greek seasoning
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
- 1 pound ground beef
- 8 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 12 slices very thin white bread, cut into very small cubes
- ½ teaspoon red chili flakes
- 12 slider buns, split open and toasted
- 1 cup Magical Marinara Sauce
- 12 slices mozzarella cheese
Place onions, Greek seasoning, Italian sausage, ground beef, basil leaves and egg in a large mixing bowl. Mix using a large wooden spoon or your hands. Add bread cubes and red chili flakes and continue to mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
Divide the mixture into 12 balls and flatten with a slider press or your hands to make sliders. Bake for 20 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove sliders from oven and top each slider with a slice of Mozzarella cheese, folding the corners to fit the top of the slider. Place sliders on bottoms of slider buns. Return sliders to oven for one or two minutes until the cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with Magical Marinara sauce (about 1 tablespoon per slider). Place bun tops on sliders to serve.
Wine pairing: Le Due Arbie 2016 Chianti Superiore, $17, Mr. Bill’s Wine Cellar
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