A couple of nights ago John and I made plans to head out for an Italian dinner. We amped our selves up for a good pasta night, and then got completely sucked into the game on TV. Playoff Football- it's addicting you know? As time went on- it became increasingly apparent that we were not heading out to dine at a restaurant, so we decided instead to order in. We chose a nicer Italian restaurant in town and ordered for delivery. I will not mention the restaurant name here as I did not enjoy my meal but hate to base them on delivery. So the food arrived, my dish was a spicy spaghetti red sauce dish with shrimp.

Now-I felt that these flavors-though present- were sorely lacking so I wanted to punch them up. As I considered what type of a dish I wanted to make- I decided that I would stick with the red sauce theme-but of course make more of it- as the dish was served with very little. So on my way home last night, I picked up some gorgeous vine ripened tomatoes, two Serrano peppers, a pound or so of lean ground turkey meat, fresh parsley, and, for the first time in years, a container of dried herbs. Let it be known-I detest dried herbs. In my (humble) opinion I feel that they have very little- to no- flavor and do very little to enhance the flavor of a dish. That said- I bought a bottle of dried "Italian blend" -a combination of Oregano, Basil, Garlic, Chives, and Parsley. I wanted to try oven roasting tomatoes, and I hoped that the dried herbs would enhance them subtly.
Back at home I sliced two full tomatoes, careful to remove the stem sections at the


The wonderful thing about roasting tomatoes in the oven is that you can hear them cook, and you can smell them as they get closer to done. I decided against


Of course, once plated, I couldn't resist a sprinkling of low fat mozzarella cheese- pasta just isn't the same without a little cheese right?
The combination of flavors were really fantastic. Unfortunately I didn't get as much of a punch of spice or garlic as I was hoping for (I think I added too much "stuff") but the over all flavor was really complete. There was background spice, the lovely hint of garlic, the nice round flavor of the roasted tomatoes. Really yummy. Unfortunately the pasta ended up a bit over cooked because of its "second" cooking and its past al dente state when I got it, but I didn't even really notice it all that much. Overall- this is a great use of leftover pasta that otherwise would have ended up in the trash.

2 comments:
Yummie. I will be trying this soon. Wish I had read your post BEFORE I made dinner tonight.
Re your camera. Bacon Boy knows the name of ours..I am useless on that stuff. But it takes awesome pictures and we have NO PHOTOGRAPHY expertise!!
Well,Bacy might disagree...but he's not here now...and I'm tellin' da truth!!
Will get the brand name to you l8r
Cheers
SAUCY
Awww thank you!! Let me know how yours turns out! I love making something new out of something old. I'll look forward to hearing about your camera-I'm in desperate need!
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