not really cooking, but contains elements of cooking

[solarbird]

risu posted over in her LJ that she really liked this improvised quick dinner I made from pre-existing parts, and it got a second comment from somebody who thought it sounded really good, so here's the story. I certainly can't call this a "recipe"; I'm not even going to go so far as to call it cooking, for that matter, but it had elements of cooking in it in that I was using materials available in a specifically experimental fashion to reach a quality of taste I wanted. Call it, I guess, a successful improvisation, with an ingredients list. I wouldn't try to recreate this, but maybe it could suggest something more easily repeatable.

Not feeling like cooking in the st00pid heat, I was making frozen cheese-and-spinich ravioli:

Pasta Prima Spinach and Mozzarella Ravioli (8 pieces per person)

...when I discovered that I had no "Italian Herb Cheese Packet" mix you are supposed to add after cooking and draining the ravioli. Also, it was stinking, and I mean stinking hot out, and cheese sauce is heavy, so I decided to come up with a red sauce for it instead of trying to make my own cheese-and-herb mix.

I grabbed some leftover basic Ragu spaghetti sauce from the fridge - I don't buy it, we had some left over from something - and tossed it into a small saucepan. It wasn't really what I wanted, except for being tomato based, and there wasn't enough anyway; there was maybe:

2/3rds C Ragu (basic) Spaghetti Sauce

...but it was a start. So to try to fix it, I added a bunch of spices¹, a few kinds of pepper:

marjoram
thyme
rosemary
savory (more than most)
sage
oregano (more than most)
basil (more than most)
sweet dried bell pepper (green and red, dried, ground)
black pepper (ground)

...to correct the base flavour, or try to. But it wasn't sweet enough, and had no texture. So I added some marinara sauce (store-bought):

2/3rds C marinara sauce (USDA organic)

...which still wasn't right. Better, but not right; it was too heavy, wanted sweetness, and wanted carry-through. And the thing that fit the chemistry in my head? Two heaping tablespoons (heaping) of sweet pickle relish! Surprise!² I thought about it and decided hey, if it's a disaster, I can always start over.

2T (heaping) sweet pickle relish

Somewhat to my surprise, this worked exactly as I'd thought it would in my head, except for still being too heavy. I needed something light to make up for the hellish heatwave; plus, while improved, it still lacked texture. That was easy enough; I added half a can of chopped tomatoes³:

8oz chopped tomatoes (canned)

And done. Simmer for 10 minutes while you work on everything else and serve over your simultaneously cooked cheese-and-spinich ravioli. Light and tasty for hot summer nights; total prep time maybe 20 easy minutes. Served four with leftovers, probably would have served about six.

---

¹: A lot of this came out of pre-mixed "Italian" and "seasoned pepper" supplies. Things I did NOT add included garlic, onion, celery, or any salt.

²: Cue Ratatouille-in-my-brain: "She's ruining the soup! She's ruining the soup!"

³: The key, really, was the sweet relish. And the chopped tomatoes. But particularly the relish. The spices adjusted the basic flavour, but the relish and tomatoes are what sweetened and lightened it.

Comments

[chirik.livejournal.com]

Where's the parsley?

[solarbird]

Don't you mean the bay leaf? ^_^

[chirik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you should toss one of those in too, but pull it out before using the sauce.

But, no, I mean the parsley. ;-)

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Sweet relish is a surprisingly useful addition to a lot of sauces. One trick I got from my boss is that if you overdo it, you add just a pinch of mustard power, and it will bring the relish taste back down so it's not dominating the sauce anymore.

[solarbird]

You are the second person to tell me this is not as surprising as I thought it was. Or at least as it was to me. Surprise!

[westrider.livejournal.com]

It was quite a surprise to me when I started using it, as I've never liked the stuff on its own, but I love what it does in combination with other stuff.