Saucy

Egg noodles aren't themselves particularly useful, unless you really love ramen. I have a theory that ramen isn't even made with flour, since you can buy ramen noodles for less than the cost of the raw ingredients that the noodles should contain. Either ramen is made from dirt and pisswater, or the process of making ramen noodles is a magical perpetual motion machine that generates more energy than it consumes.

In any event, Sunday's noodles are going to be bland without a sauce to put upon them. I've studied Alton Brown's recipe, which is slightly different from the one he outlines in "Pantry Raid II: Seeing Red". The recipe is slated to have difficulty "easy", but the cooking time is two and a half hours.

Granted, I'm sure the sauce is delicious, but I'm pretty sure that good Roma tomatoes are only in season for about six minutes around here and I have things to do, like not bake a tray of tomatoes. The "Seeing Red" recipe isn't much better. It demands the use of a broiler and requires you to make a reduction of canned tomato water and sherry vinegar.

I don't consider that "easy". Both of these are significantly more complex than the recipe from one of Stef's books, which is much, much faster:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped ( ~ 1.5c )
4 cloves garlic, minced ( ~ 4 tsp )
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 28-oz. can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, w/ juices
1 tsp finely minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
1 sprig fresh rosemary
salt & pepper to taste
0.25c torn fresh basil

To make the sauce, in a 4-qt saucepan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring a few times, until translucent, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, tomatoes, chipotle, oregano, and rosemary, bring to a slow boil, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the liquid has evaporated slightly, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

[I should add that this sauce starts out chunky and more like a sturdy salsa. To get a thinner consistency, a.k.a., more like the stuff that comes in a jar from the supermarket, Stef let me smash the hell out of it with something that looks like a David Cronenberg sexual device.]

Now all I need is a good recipe for meatballs and I'll be self-sufficient.

AB has already crafted a recipe not wholly unlike the one my dad used to make, but it involves breading the balls and baking them in a mini-muffin tray, both of which seem convoluted to me.