Sunday Supper: Shells & Sauce

 

Shells & Sauce

WWW.AtHomeMyWay.blogspot.com

Printable Recipe / HERE

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

• 1 Pound Ground Beef
• 3 teaspoons onion powder (or fresh 1/2 of a chopped onion if you don't have picky eaters like me)
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste + 3 cans of water
• 1 (8 oz) tomato sauce + 1 can of water (I used home canned 16 oz tomato sauce.)
• 1 teaspoon + 1 Tablespoon garlic powder (divided)
• 2 teaspoon dried basil 
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• 2 dried bay leaves (REMOVE AFTER COOKING, BUT BEFORE EATING - DO NOT EAT THESE)
• 1 (16 oz) box of pasta shells
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil (or butter)
• Salt & Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

Sauce:

1. Add ground beef to a skillet/dutch oven.  Add salt (about 1 teaspoon) and some pepper.  Add the 3 teaspoons onion powder & 1 teaspoon garlic powder to the cooking meat.  (If using fresh onion, cook in a little oil until clear before adding the ground beef to the skillet.)
2. Cook ground beef until no longer pink.  Drain if needed.  (I didn't drain mine.  I like a little fat to my sauce.)  
3. Add the tomato paste + 3 of its cans of water.
4. Add the tomato sauce +1 of its cans of water.
5. Stir and simmer without a lid until the paste and sauce / water dissolve and form a cohesive sauce.
6. Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon garlic powder, the basil, sugar, and bay leaves, salt & pepper.  Stir well.
7. Simmer WITHOUT A LID for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Taste it.  Does it need some salt?  If so, add a little.  Does it taste bitter?  If so, add a little more sugar, 1/2 teaspoon at a time.  (I like mine a little sweet, but my daughter does not so she leaves out the sugar.)  
9. Feel free to increase the spices as your tastes prefer.
10. Always cook another 10-15 minutes after adding any more spices.
11. REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES BEFORE SERVING.  

Pasta:

1. Add at least 3 quarts of water to a large pot.  Salt (2 teaspoons).
2. Bring to boil.  Stir.
3. Dump in the pasta and bring back to a hard boil.  
4. Hard boil (without a lid) for about 11 minutes, stirring occasionally.  
5. Taste a shell and make sure it's done enough for you.  Careful! The water inside those shells is hot.   
6. Drain water from the pasta and then drizzle with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil (or butter).  You can add more salt if the pasta needs more salt at this point.
7. Ladle hot sauce over hot pasta.  Can be combined and served all together.  We just like to control the ratio of sauce to pasta for our plates!  

The Facts!

When did "Shells" or "Seashell" pasta first become a thing?

"Conchigile" commonly called "shells" or "seashell" is formed in the shape of conch shells.  This Italian pasta  originated in southern Italy and requires mass production so likely origins trace back to 18th and 19th century southern Italy in the Puglia region where mass-produced pasta was born.  

What is Seashell Pasta made of?

Semolina wheat and water.

Is there a practical purpose for seashell pasta rather than other shapes of pasta?

Conchigle pasta (seashells) has ridges and works great to scoop up and hold onto the sauce, no mater what sauce you prefer.

What else can you make with Seashell pasta?

Seashell pasta also makes great mac & cheese as well as being served with alfredo, often perfect for shrimp dishes and pasta salads!  

The Chit Chat!

I grew up in Florida in the 1970's.  My mom made spaghetti for our family at least once a week and to this day my brother and I both love it any time she makes a pot of sauce and we happen to be home to eat it.  We never, EVER had jarred sauce at our house!  (Our dad would still croak if he had to eat jarred sauce.) The Sauce is saucy (duh) and the spices are just right!  It's aromatic with onion, garlic and basil, bay leaves if we have them.  If there is a memory smell attached my mom's kitchen, it is ground beef and onion cooking as she got ready to "make some sauce".  

It seems in the midwest where I live now, they love mashed potatoes.  Mashed potatoes, smashed potatoes!  Blah! For us growing up in Florida, whether my granny made it or my mom made it, it was "the sauce"!  THAT was the meal that would melt our hearts and fill our tummies.  That was the meal that we craved after days in the hot Florida sun either swimming in our above-the-ground, three foot deep swimming pool or out pretending survival in the orange grove and riding our bikes around the neighborhood.  

It was a good day at our house when we opened the door with the jalousie windows to the cool dark inside and got a whiff of "the sauce".  "Dinner's ready!"

I have always "made the sauce" for my own little family.  It took me a bit to get it right after I married my husband at the young age of 18 (my mom does not have a written recipe) but I did get it right shortly thereafter.  Doug did not grow up ever eating spaghetti sauce but being the good hubby that he is, he has developed a glimmer of love for "the sauce".  I taught our two girls to make "the sauce" and they now make their own versions for their own little families.  

My mom makes seashell pasta about half as much as she makes spaghetti to go with the sauce. My brother and I love either one.  We didn't realize back in the 1970's in central Florida that not everyone knew about seashell pasta.  For us, seashells were part of our lives there and so of course, seashells would adorn our plates nearly as much as they did the sand outside.  Also, meals weren't tailored to children back then.  Seashell pasta was about as close as we got to dinosaur chicken nuggets or Paw Patrol spaghetti o's as we could get.

Back in the day, our mom had a dark pine Ethan Allen dining table that she worked at McDonald's just long enough to pay for. We used a table cloth on it every single night even with it was just her and us two kids  eating supper (our dad was a long haul truck driver).  Heaven forbid if we sat a glass on that table  without the cloth and it left a little white ring.  Eek!  My parents still sit at the dinner table with a table cloth every single night.  Craziness!  

These days I'm making more "shells and sauce" than I am spaghetti pasta since lately Doug prefers shells rather than spaghetti pasta.  He covers his serving with mozzarella and melts the cheese in the microwave.  I have always loved me some "Shells & Sauce" so last night for Sunday supper here in mid Missouri that's what I made for our supper. It was frigid! Snow is piled up everywhere and temps are in the low 20's.  Brrrr!  I couldn't be in sunny Florida but I could make some Shells & Sauce!  It was a great way to step back and remember my silly little brother and I lapping up the delicious suppers that our mom made for us every single night, sitting at that Ethan Allen dining table with a table cloth.  

Food takes you back and definitely my Shells & Sauce did the trick for me!  Get yourself a box of seashell pasta and try it with some sauce.  I'm betting you will love as much as we do AT HOME MY WAY!

Enjoy!

Gina