This Week Is Off To A Good Start

To say that I had a bad weekend is putting it mildly. I'm having some serious issues with the person who oversees the Residential Housing program here at the Y.M.C.A. and the longer things go unresolved, the more upset I become.

For me, getting over a bad couple of days is not easy but it is important. So, today, I got up at 7:30 in the morning and got busy from the get-go. I cleaned the room, took out the trash, showered and shaved, and then put together everything I needed to cook a good meal.

I've had a craving for really good pasta sauce for a few days. I love to make it from scratch. Part of that is because I learned how to do it from my grandmother. She was of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry but spent several years living in the part of Endicott that was settled primarily by Italian immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s. She learned the way to make truly authentic Italian food and taught me, in turn.

Everything she needed for her sauce came from her own garden, with one exception. She had a former neighbor who for several years had an olive grove in his back yard. She would trade some of what she had for the olive oil he made.

So, into the kitchen I went this morning. I made the base for the sauce, then added a three cheese blend (Romano, Parmesan and Asiago). I've done this so many times I never measure the amount of cheese. I just add what looks right and cross my fingers. Today, as happens most times, it was just the right amount for my taste. I do measure my spices because over-seasoned sauce is not a good thing.

I turned on the burner and set it at medium heat. I let the sauce come to a simmer and then moved it to the back burner with very low heat. I got the water ready to cook the pasta, adding just a little olive oil and a very small amount of spices. I do not care for large amounts of sodium so I never add any salt to the water. The only salt in the sauce was a small amount added to the tomato paste that I used.

The package said it would take thirteen minutes for the pasta to be "al dente", which is how I like it.

It took just that exact amount of time. I drained the pasta, poured the sauce into a clean storage container, and put the pasta in two more containers when cooled sufficiently.

I did my dishes and cleaned up not only after myself but also cleaned a minor mess someone else had left behind.

The sauce was delicious. It was robust, not overly sweet (I do not add sugar unless it's needed to cut the acidity of the tomatoes, which was not an issue today), and just tasted so good over the nicely seasoned pasta.

I still have things I need to deal with, some of which are routine, some of which are not. But today it was nice to get off to such a good start.