Red (Carpet) Sauce

I'm still on my kick of making quick and delicious one-pot pasta sauces and eating them with quinoa. Tonight for sitting at home watching the Oscars (and working - really!), I decided on a red cream sauce. It was beautifully red, rich and spicy hot (okay, enough trying to make heavy handed and cheesy comparisons between a quality meal and a Hollywood spectacle).

I started with a base of J's Vodka Sauce and changed based on what I had in the house, etc. And the best part (aside from the taste - it really was good!) was that it was done in a little more than 30 minutes.

Red Cream Sauce
Sauce for pasta (or quinoa) for 4-6

1 ½ can (28 oz. ones) crushed tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1 large onion
1/3 cup cream
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
¾ pack of frozen baby sweet peas
4 hot Italian sausages
1/3 cup Parmigian grated cheese

1. Saute onions (until clear) and garlic
2. Add sausage and sauté til cooked
3. Add everything else except peas and cream; cook for about 15 minutes
4. Add remaining ingredients and cook another 10 minutes
5. Enjoy!

I do want to point out that my interest in a quick, good meal is based on 2 things: 1. A lack of time (like everyone else, I'm too busy and don't have time to do a gourmet meal every night), 2. A refusal to eat bad food. I am, though, of the opinion that this is not an extraordinarily difficult thing to do (though comments on David Leibowitz's blog show that not everyone agrees with this (which, of course is why the Food Network is what it is, which is why the Ruhlman/Bourdain 'discussion' is interesting)).

At the end of the day, this dinner was not that different (in vaguely descriptive terms) from a Hamburger Helper kind of thing (meat and stuff in a pot) - only it was homemade (and tasted much better). It's just about knowing (or being comfortable experimenting with) what combinations actually work - and that's the key. So, while I am sometimes hesitant about posting my less dramatic meals (they seem paltry by comparison with what others often post), I'll keep doing so as my input to the ideas for quick meals.