I like Annie’s Mac and Cheese. I like that it’s typically somewhat healthier
than the competitor’s boxed mac and cheese.
But today, I dressed her up. Even
better than the original.
I had a bunch of vine-ripened tomatoes left over from
something a week or so ago. I also had a
half a large yellow onion, some fresh basil, and some garlic. I thought, if nothing else, I need to make a
sauce, put it away in a jar and figure out something to do with it at some
point in the future.
I started by heating up some olive oil in a large sauce
pan. Once it got nice and shimmery, I
put in the half onion that I had roughly diced.
I let that sweat a bit until it was translucent and then added a couple
cloves of finely diced garlic. The beginning
of just about anything tasty had begun.
While that was getting all yummy, I took these vine-ripened
tomatoes (bigger than cherry tomatoes, but not ovoid like Roma tomatoes) and
cut them in 8ths. I added all of those
(probably close to 3-4 cups) including their seeds and juices. As that was cooking down, I took the fresh
basil that I had and I cut it up somewhat fine…sort of a backwoods julienne, if
you will.
I let that simmer on the stove top for a while. It started smelling pretty good. I added a bit of kosher salt, some dried
oregano, just a touch of dried basil (to support the fresh), and a few dashes
of red pepper flakes for some heat.
Stir. Simmer. Stir.
Simmer.
Then I got to thinking, it’s about lunch time. I’m hungry, but I don’t want to cook an
entire thing of pasta (some spinach fettuccine that I’m saving for another
dish) just to use this sauce. And then
it hit me – I’ve got some Amy’s!
So, I made the Amy’s pasta per directions. Drained it and
added it to the sauce. Then I added the
cheese powder to the sauce as well. Stir
stir stir. Lastly, I grated just a
little bit of this cheddar-like cheese I had left in my fridge over the
top.
Delicioso.
