Day Thirteen: She's So Saucy

Well hello there! It's hot here in Denver again, after a wonderful week last week of cool temps. I'm pretty thankful for not having to turn on the big oven, or even the stove today. My poor little air conditioning unit is trying its hardest, but unless i find a way to levitate right in front of it, I'm pretty sure the words "cooling off" are going to disappear from my vocabulary.

But I didn't come here to talk about the weather, oh no. I came here to discuss my dinner. Mmmm. Spaghetti.

I've been trying to cut down on the carbs over the past few months, so it's been quite awhile since I've had anything even resembling Italian food. Of course, I'm not claiming that spaghetti made with Asian rice noodles is really Italian food, but I'm pretty happy to have eaten it anyway.

So... the recipe
1/2 C Maifun noodles
8 cherry tomatoes
1 pinch of salt
1 healthy pinch of red pepper flakes
2 med sized fresh basil leaves
1 T tomato paste
2 tsp olive oil
Approx 1 T of shredded cheese (any kind that melts well is fine)

I roasted the tomatoes with just a little salt and pepper in the EBO for about 35 minutes until they were JUST starting to give off some juice. I didn't take a picture because you've all seen what Easy Bake roasted tomatoes look like. While the tomatoes did their thing, I put the dry noodles in a bowl of hot tap water and just let them hang out. Yes, for the whole 35 minutes. Remember what I said about Maifun noodles never getting soggy? I wasn't lying.

So after the tomatoes came out, I dumped them, their juice, the tomato paste, and the basil into a blender and whirred everything up until it looked kinda like sauce. Then, I turned the blender back on for about 15 seconds while i drizzled in the olive oil, and added a pinch each of salt and red pepper flakes.

Then, I arranged the noodles in the pan, spread the sauce over them in a layer, and sprinkled the cheese on top.



It stayed in the EBO for about 25 minutes. I decided to just use the alarm clock on my phone rather than the timer on the EBO for the longer cooking times. After 25 minutes, the cheese was melted and the noodles were just a little crispy on the edges.



The noodles were al dente, and the sauce was delicious and spicy. And yes, I really did eat it with my chopsticks.

I will probably make this again. It's not really that much effort, and in fact, the sauce turned out so good I might make a larger batch of it to freeze when I can use the big oven again.

And now... I'm going to lie very still on the couch and will the air conditioner to focus all it's effort on saving me from the 5th Circle of Hell.

Ciao!