My first SND of the year was quite accidental, and actually began with a Saturday Night Dinner. The Mister and I had terrible colds last week, just awful. Super rad way to start the year. We barely left the house all weekend, and on Saturday I decided I needed some good ol' comfort food: grilled cheese sammies and cream of tomato soup. The grilled cheese was to be the star of the show: I used Thomas Keller's method out of his Ad Hoc cookbook (more on that in a bit). I was all set to use Campbell's Tomato soup, but the Mister thought that would be too easy and that I should try the homemade. "Bah", said I. Homemade tomato soup tastes like a bowl full of marinara sauce 99% of the time. But okay, I'm game. I looked through my cherished cookbooks, and found a good recipe in Ina Garten's Back to Basics. "Okaaaaay", said I. I'll give 'er a go, but to avoid the skins and seeds, I'll use canned crushed tomatoes. Ina purees her soup in a food mill, which would take care of skins and seeds, but I do not have such equipment. So here's what you do, and it didn't turn out too shabby!
Okay, start with two red onions. Chop them up, but don't worry about chopping too finely - you're going to hand blender or blend the soup later. Pour a four count of olive oil into a stock pot and heat it over medium heat. Add your chopped onions and stir, adding just a little salt and pepper. Peel and chop two carrots and add those to the onions. Sweat the vegetables for fifteen minutes or so without browning. A little color is fine, but you don't want to burn anything. Add five cloves of chopped garlic, then half a cup or so of white wine. Cook the alcohol off, then add two 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, 3 cups of chicken stock, one tablespoon of tomato paste , 1 1/2 ounces of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt, and some freshly ground black pepper. Stir that deliciousness well, bring to a boil, and turn the heat down to simmer for forty minutes. Stir occasionally, and add more chicken stock if you think it's reducing too much (if it's looking too thick).
After forty or so minutes, get out my favorite kitchen appliance: The hand blender! The boat motor! Seriously, you haven't gotten one yet? C'MON. Do it. Blend the soup until it's nicely pureed, then turn the heat down to low, and add 3/4 cup of heavy cream - I used lactose free 2% milk because the Mister does not tolerate lactose, and it turned out just fine.
Now for the grilled cheese! Thomas Keller says you should use brioche, but of course Ralph's didn't have any, so I used some roasted garlic bread that was made that day and DELICIOUS. It had whole cloves of roasted garlic in it and was really really good. Okay, so thinly slice some Gruyere cheese and make as many sandwiches as you have cheese to make them with. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and melt two tablespoons of butter in a large pan until it's almost browned. Add as many sandwiches to the pan that will fit, but don't overcrowd that shit. You know better than that. Cook for two minutes, then flip. The bread will be nicely browned, but the cheese won't be melted yet. Don't fret! It's going into the oven! Put the sandwiches on a sheet pan, spread a little more room temperature butter on top (oh yeah!) and pop into the oven. Finish off the rest of your sandwiches in the pan (add more butter if needed), and into the oven! They really only need a few minutes in the oven to finish the cooking, so keep a weather eye out. When they're done, cut them in two and serve with the tomato soup!
Now, I thought the grilled cheese were FANTASTIC and the tomato soup was good, but it I wasn't blown away. The Mister and Sethy assured me that the soup was great (aw shucks) but I wasn't convinced, and even after sending Sethy home with a serving to go, I was still left with quite a bit. Hmmmm I thought, what to do? I can't make more grilled cheese or I'll blow up to huge proportions and my Wii Fit will never let me hear the end of it!
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. Still hadn't left the house and pondering SND. "What if", the Mister asked, "you turn that tomato soup into some kick ass meat sauce for spaghetti?" Genius! That's why I married that guy ;) Here's what you do:
Pour a three count of olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add four cloves of chopped garlic with a good pinch of red pepper flake. Cook for about one minute and do not let the garlic burn. Add a half of a pound of ground pork and half of a pound to ground beef with some S & P. Stir, stir, and break down the ground meats so that they're very fine. You don't want big chunks of meat here. Brown the meat, then add a half cup of white or red wine - I used white because that's what I was drinking (Sterling for my momma!). Next add one tablespoon of tomato paste, then ladle in your leftover tomato soup. Keep an eye on how much you put in - this is a meat sauce, so you don't want too much of the soup, or it will just be marinara with meat. If the sauce is looking too meaty, add some more soup. Turn your heat to low and simmer whilst you heat a large pot for your spaghetti. Add some chopped fresh basil and parsley to your sauce. Be sure to salt your pasta water and cook the noodles to al dente. I used one pound of spaghetti and when it was done I added it straight to the sauce. Go for it!
I added some grated Parmesan and freshly ground pepper to my serving, but if your loved one does not tolerate lactose, you may omit the cheese. And enjoy! Double duty dinners sound faintly 30-minute-meal-esque (don't get me wrong Rachael, however thirty minute meals do not belong in SNDs), but if you find yourself in such a situation, go for it! It's SND!
All the best,
D
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