Busy, Busy

I've been busy this last week, working on a personal software project I hope to be able to announce soon. This one's been sitting on the back burner for five months, and I'm in a sprint to get it finished so that I can move on to new projects. More information soon, I promise.

In the mean time, a quick discussion about food. I've been playing with sundried tomatoes quite a bit recently. I've come to this point from several directions. One is simply that they're an ingredient I haven't used much. I tend to go through phases of trying a bunch of ideas with a new ingredient before it finally settles into it's long-term place in my repertoire. Another is that they don't require much energy for shipping or storage. I don't think the food-miles concept is the end-all-be-all of ethical eating, but I like low-energy things in general. Energy is just going to get more expensive, and aside from that, using more energy than you need to is just poor design. Lastly, I like the idea of eating in-season. That's ultimately where a local cuisine comes from -- you make do with what you have available, when it's available. So if you want tomatoes in the dead of winter, you have two options, canned or dried. I know all about canned, so I'm playing with dried.

(I've got some experiments planned for mid-Winter bouillabaisse and mid-Winter chili. You can expect a full report on both.)

For tonight, however, I'm trying my hand at pasta sauce. It's turned out quite nicely.

(Note: all amounts are approximate and to taste. Experimentation and honing your instincts is two-thirds of the fun.)

1 cheap cut of beef, maybe 12 cubic inches, diced ($1.00)
.85 oz (1/4 3.5 oz pack) sundried tomatoes, julienned ($0.75)
1/4 cup chopped purple onion ($0.25)
2 cloves garlic ($0.10)
1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano, thyme, and basil ($0.15 combined)
2 teaspoons Better than Bullion beef reduction ($0.20)
2 or 3 dashes of olive oil ($0.25)
parmesan cheese to taste (in my case, about $0.60)
1/4 pound dried fettucini ($0.50)

In a skillet of chef's pan, saute the minced beef in olive oil until cooked through and browned. Add onions and garlic with a little salt and cook until the onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, beef reduction, herbs, and enough water to almost cover. Simmer on medium-low heat for one hour, replenishing water as necessary. When the hour is almost up, allow water to evaporate to concentrate the flavors. Pour over pasta and grate on the cheese.

In retrospect, the only thing I'd change is the amount of pasta I used -- the sauce could easily accommodate 50% more. I'm not that hungry tonight, but it'd make an excellent main course for two people, assuming a salad, bread and wine.