Spaghetti and Sauce

It's hard to believe that something so delicious as spaghetti and sauce is so easy to make!

Here's what you need:
-a large pot
-water
-salt
-a box of spaghetti
-jar of spaghetti sauce
-a bowl or sauce pan
-colander
-large bowl or serving platter
-serving spoon or fork
-parmesan cheese

Here's how:

First, boil some water in a large pot (or, ask an older friend to do it for you if you aren't allowed to turn on the stove by yourself) and sprinkle in a little salt. After the water is boiling and bubbling, add the brittle, raw noodles, letting them cook for about 10 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, heat up your sauce. I prefer to use the stove top and a sauce pan, but the microwave works just as well--just be sure to cover your bowl with a paper towel so the sauce doesn't splatter all over and make a huge mess!

Now here comes the tricky part (it's not so much tricky because it is difficult, but because you have to be a little strong to do it): place a colander in the sink, and pour the pot of boiling water and pasta into the colander, allowing the hot water to drain from the noodles. Then, rinse with cold water, shaking out any excess liquid.

Next, place the noodles into a large bowl or serving platter.

The final step is up to you and your family: you can either mix the warm sauce in with the bare noodles, or, serve them separately (and with parmesan cheese!), allowing each person to use as much or as little sauce as they like. I like lots and lots of sauce. But my mom barely likes any at all! She lightly waves a spoon of the universally palatable red sauce over the spaghetti, barely moistening her plate of yellow pasta.

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Other than being easy and cheap, I like to think of spaghetti and sauce as medium to express and experiment with our creativity. Like a page from a coloring book, we are able to leave it as it is and have an outlined image to appreciate. Or we can color it, make it our own. With the outlines as a guide, we can do as we like. We can color as much or as little of the picture as we want. We can also decide how we will color it, with markers or crayons or pastels. We can decide to make the sky blue and the grass green, or we can make the sky red and the grass purple! We can stay within the lines or venture away from them. We can even add our own drawings to the picture. Our final art piece to hang on the refrigerator can be as simple or as complicated as we'd like.

And spaghetti is the same way. We can change the shape of the pasta. Instead of long, thin noodles, we can use bowties or shells. We can try whole-grain or the colored varieties, too. We can add veggies to the sauce, season it with spices, add cheese. Though it takes more time, is a little more difficult, and requires more experience in the kitchen, I like to make my own sauce. I cut up whatever vegetables I can find (eggplant and roasted red pepper are my favorites) and allow them to simmer and stew with chunky tomatoes, garlic, onions, and fresh herbs. The result is different every time: sometimes it's sweet and sometimes it's spicy, but it's always rewarding to taste the concoction that has been producing mouth-watering smells in your kitchen.

للصحة (Lil-Saha!) To Health!

image from BiteDelite!