Earl Cooks Radiatore & Sauce With 2 Cheeses

Radiatore & Meat Sauce with 2 cheeses

For some time now my wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") and I have been paying attention to TV chefs and how they do things differently than we do. Some do it differently just to be different, it seems, but most often the respected chefs have a method to their madness. Sometime we can't take advantage of their advice because it is too pricey or unavailable near us, but for this recipe, it seemed like a no-brainer...that is, buying pasta that will HOLD ONTO THE SAUCE! It seems like everyone would want that, right? Well, last time I bought pasta I bought 3 kinds we usually don't keep on hand. Elbows with ridges, small shells and radiatore. For the elbows I had to buy a brand name but for the shells and radiatore, the store brand was fine.

I should point out here that I like jarred pasta sauce and usually keep it on hand, but not this time. This time I wanted to use pantry items I had on hand, in particular some no salt added items I bought to prepare meals for my mom before her passing in 2017. So a homemade pasta sauce seemed like a great choice.

Now I am certain many won't consider canned tomatoes or tomato sauce as truly "homemade", and yet the TV chefs use them all the time! My ingredients are as follows:
Herbs & Spices:

• Gourmet Garden Stir in Basil (1tsp.) - great for when you don't have access to fresh
• Dorot or Pop&Cook Frozen Basil & Garlic. I find these a great way to add a bit of herbs. They are usually found in the frozen vegetable section. I have purchased them at Trader Joe's & Wal-Mart.
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt. For my sauce, I am using the Mediterranean version.
• Fresh Cracked Black Pepper. Nothing else will do.

Tomato Products:

• Hunt's Tomato Sauce (I used the no salt added but normally I just have the regular on hand), 1 can (15 oz.)
• Hunt's Fire Roasted  Diced Tomatoes (I prefer the flavor of these to other canned varieties. They are not hot as the name might indicate, just roasted over a fire. 1 can (14.5 oz.)
• Hunt's Tomato paste (again this is the no salt added version) 1 can

Cheese & Meat:

• Store brand mozzarella from Smith's which I grated (8 oz.)
• Parmesan which I also grated fresh (half a cup)
• 85/15 ground beef I bought on sale today (about a pound)

The Vegetables:

• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1½ yellow onion (medium) or one LARGE
• 5 (or so) multi colored peppers
• 3 sweet cherry peppers (Mezzetta Brand - jarred) 

The Pasta:

• half a box of Great Value Radiatore, cooked (4 servings) 

The Process:
Using a large frying pan (11") I got started on the layers of flavors. My process was to start by dicing the onion to use as a base for browning the beef. I wanted a good browning but no crunchiness in this stage. I added one whole onion here, retaining the other half to add brightness later. Once that was done I added the first tomato product, tomato SAUCE. I want to infuse that rich taste as well as add some moisture to keep the beef from over cooking.

Once that was cooked into the beef & onion, I added the tomato paste to give a bolder tomato flavor. I should say here that "Turkey" isn't a fan of most tomato based pasta sauces, so I made an effort to make this one special for her. I thought that could be achieved by adding chunky vegetables. I started by chopping celery into a small yet rustic dice. I didn't want it to dissolve, I wanted some crunch. Next I added diced mini-peppers, seeded, and the diced, sweet cherry peppers.

Now that this had all cooked together I needed to season it. I added the seasoned salt (Mediterranean), the basil paste & basil cubes (2), as well as the garlic cubes. Season to taste. We love garlic!

We are coming into the home stretch here, so get your pasta started! Cook it to al dente or a bit less. It will finish in the sauce, absorbing it into the nooks & crannies. Now take half of the shredded mozzarella and stir into the sauce, cover the pan, allowing it to melt. Once melted, stir in half of the Parmesan. Now stir in the diced tomatoes, including the juice they are packed in. Add the other half onion in now too..

Now drain the pasta, reserving a cup or two of the pasta water and add the drained pasta to the sauce. If needed add back some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce, and top with the other half of the mozzarella. Cover and simmer long enough to melt the cheese. Serve in a big bowl and top with the remaining Parmesan.

Results & Conclusion
I may never need to keep jarred sauce on hand anymore! This was much better, although more work. I probably made too much for the two of us, but we ate it the next night and it was delicious again. I will probably keep jarred sauce for convenience, but for flavor, this beats it, hands down. Now I will keep more of these components on hand! Next time I may make about half of what I did though, even after 2 dinners, we had enough for lunch!