Sauce

January 15 2024

January 15, 2024

My attempts to create a sauce recipe I like resume. I made a sauce about two weeks ago that was very bad

• 56 ounces of peeled tomatoes (crushed by hand)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 6 cloves of garlic (minced)
• yellow onion (minced)
• 5-10 basil leaves (julienned)

It was very bad. I didn’t realize most of the olive oil existed to saute the onion and garlic, so there ended up being way too much oil. I also didn’t crush the tomatoes that well, so the sauce was uneven.

A few days ago, I tried again and made something that tasted better (not to say it tasted great, but it had flavor). The recipe ended up looking something like this

• 28 ounces of peeled tomatoes (crushed by food processor)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
• sweet onion (minced)
• basil (rested in sauce for a while)
• teaspoon of sugar

In between the two attempts, I forgot exactly what I used, so I was working from memory. Though I only needed about half, I still remembered a doubling of the garlic and onion (I also remembered the wrong kind of onion). I also let it sit for about 20-30 minutes.

This had more flavor than before and I liked the taste, but it definitely isn’t “top tier” (the quality of my favorite local restuarant).

Both times I used Cento tomatoes which I was a little worried about at first because I had mostly seen San Merican (from my favorite show), and so I thought there might be something wrong with the base. This seems unlikely though because there was still a lot of improvement in flavor from the first two the second week. Was there a lot more tomato flavor? I’m unsure, but right now I think tomato flavor isn’t the biggest issue.

I think I will again look at adding a carrot in the future as well as other spices.

February 6, 2024

Ok, so it’s been a while. In the last 4ish weeks, I made pretty good sauces and pretty bad sauces.

The week immediately after the last post, the suace tasted very tomato-ey. I have no idea– absolutely no idea– why.

The week after that I forgot to add salt, and that was an absolute throw. It just had no flavor. I also ran out of fresh basil this week.

The next week I and this week I sort of converged towards an approach.

• 28 ounces of peeled tomatoes (crushed by food processor)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1/2 yellow onion (minced)
• 2 carrots (one soaked in the sauce while making, and finely slice some of the other into the sauce)
• Parmigiano reggiano (a sliver; it’s very expensive)

I started thinking a lot about cost of what I’m eating recently, and this is very good compared to Rao’s.

The prices are as follows

• tomatoes: $4
• olive: oil ¢50
• garlic: ¢40
• onion: ¢35
• carrots: ¢50
• vegetable oil: ¢2
• parmiginao regianno: $1

Pasta is $1.5, Turkey is $10 and peas are $3.75. I make 5 meals, so this comes out to about $4.50 a meal. My breakfast comes out to about $2 dollars per meal (actually $1.67 but that’s because of a sale).

My lunch comes out to

• tortilla: $5
• queso: $1.25
• chicken: $10.00
• bacon: $3.75
• vegetable oil: ¢2
• seasoning: $1 (probably less since I started buying in bulk)
• yogurt: ¢63
• onion: ¢35
• cheese: $3.25
• corn: $3.75

This totals to $29 (actually exactly) and I make 6, so that’s $4.83 dollars per. I also eat an apple and a banana, which are under a dollar per day. This means the total amount I eat per day is $2 + $4.50 + $4.83 + $1 = $12.33.

Over a week that’s 86 dollars. I spend like $1.20 on costco per week amortized.

Cacio e Pepe

I also made Cacio e Pepe because I had extra spagetti. This was not cost effective; it was not worth buying Pecorino Romano. I liked it though but cheese is extremely expensive.