Spaghettioz

News flash: If it’s cutesy, someone’s done it before. After a recent impulse buy of little round ring pasta, the obvious direction seemed to be simmering up some old-school Spaghettios, just with better ingredients. Not only did we discover we’ve been trumped on this one by another vegetarian blog, they made the same yuck-yuck intro. Fuck.

Regardless, we’re re-activating the playful comfort food section we call “No Drive Thru” to bring you a $5, 10-minute meal with easy to round up ingredients. The tomatoes can even be mealy, won’t matter! We’re gonna make two components of sauce for a little complexity. Watch out mommy!

Spaghettioz

(Serves 2)

2 cups Anelletti pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 large overripe heirloom tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Basil for garnish

1. Bring a medium pot of water to boil, with a touch of salt and olive oil. Toss in the pasta and let boil to al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. In a second pot, start the first sauce component by adding the olive oil, garlic, onion and sautéing for about 2 minutes. Then roughly chop your tomatoes and add. Wait another 2 minutes and pour in the balsamic. Cook it off by cranking the heat and boiling until half the liquid cooks off. Then, using a tea strainer or something, sift out the tomato chunks (save them and set aside) leaving the liquid on high heat.

3. Add tomato sauce and stock and bring to a rolling boil. Then drop in cooked pasta just enough to bring up to piping hot temperature.

4. Toss the vinegary tomato chunks with parmesan (substitute 2 Tbs. nutritional yeast to veeg-ify) and plop on top of the soup. Season and garnish and serve.

Beverage: Yahoo and vodka.
Soundtrack: Pavement’s “No More Kings”