Blair P. Houghton wrote:
> I wanted some quick pasta with clams and red sauce.
>
> I had the last of a jar of TJ's Rustico in the fridge,
> and a foil-pack of Chicken of the Sea baby clams in
> the pantry.
>
> I seeded and chopped up a roma tomato and half an onion
> to create a little more texture. Sweated the onion,
> tossed in the tomato. Added the clams and simmered off
> the water (I'd strained them well and saved the juice
> and re-strained it through a microfine strainer to remove
> the sand).
>
> I had gemelli in the pasta pot and they're touchy, and
> I was running a little behind on the sauce.
>
> I opened the TJ's jar and looked inside, and there was
> a fuzzy white spot in there. I wiggled it a little, and
> the fuzzy white spot had a gruesome knob of gunk under it.
>
> Oh well. I also had half a can of tomato paste in the
> fridge. Ran to grab it, got it out of its ziploc, looked
> inside. Damn. Big fuzzy white thing growing in there.
> Looked like Einstein's hairdo.
>
> What to do. What to do.
>
> I chopped up another roma and threw it in.
>
> Then I realized, without the store-bought sauce I had
> no seasoning.
>
> Okay. Grab the Penzey's Italian mix, a pinch of garlic
> powder (no time to chop a clove), shake them in.
>
> Stir. Add pasta and pasta water. Stir. Eyeball. Needs
> red and piquant.
>
> Dash on a little hot hungarian paprika. Stir. Hmm.
>
> Microplane in a quarter-cup of parm-reg. Stir.
>
> Bowl and serve.
>
> Saved it. It didn't have that tart, tomatoey flavor I was
> craving, but it didn't taste like plain veggies and noodles.
> I can see intending to make it this way. Actually, I'm
> pretty sure I've done it before on purpose.
>
> Went great with a glass of the fume' blanc I'm working
> on this week, too.
>
> --Blair

Isn't it just awesome when you save a meal like that--r3