Pasta and Monopoly on a Rainy Day!

If you know me you know one of my absolute favorite things to do is to prepare a meal and enjoy an evening in the company of my friends. Living at home with my parents seldom allows for this.

Last night I went over to my buddy Jeff's place and got to cook a wonderful pasta dinner and then we hung out and played monopoly for a bit. It actually turned into a mini celebration of sorts, since Jeff had gotten his evaluation from his employer and was the most productive employee and got the highest raise. I don't want to misquote this but I think he pulled 119,595 lines last year, and they want him to train to be a driver.

Anyway we were expecting a couple more people, but it just ended up being: Jeff, JorVic and myself...unless we can count the 12 pack of beer. I think we should.

Seeing as how I am now living on a very fixed student budget I decided to prepare a delightful meal and store bought dessert for six...final cost $12. Pretty impressive, huh!

Jeff is usually the one who is in the kitchen whipping up some mouth watering dish or another. When he was at American River College he took a ton of courses in food preparation and restaurant management. I think he is going to be a great chef some day. Who knows maybe he will let me play his soux chef when he gets around to owning his own business.

Anyway, he is one of the sweetest guys I know and he let me use his awesome, fancy chef's knives to prepare the meal. Someday I would love to have a set of beautiful, professional knives like that.

While I was cooking Jeff told me amusing tales about some of the knife related injuries he has been witness to. They sounded pretty gruesome, guess its a good thing that I have a very strong stomach and a slightly deranged sense of humor.

After dinner we sat around and played Monopoly the San Francisco edition and just had the best time talking and laughing.

Here's the recipe for pasta alla arrabiata:
1 pound spaghetti
1 pound spicy italian sausage
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
2 medium onions
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 habanero (sounds scary but I promise its an integral part to this pasta sauce)
1 can tomato paste
1 12 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

1. Fill a pot with water and put on stove following instructions on the pasta package.
2. Dice onions and crush garlic cloves and then finely chop.
3. Heat a pan on medium and add the olive oil.
4. Add the onions and garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook till onions are translucent (about 5 mins, stirring ocassionally)
5. Add basil. Stir and let cook for another minute. Now add the sausage and cook till sausage is browned and completely cooked through.
6. Add 2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce and stir the mix. Let cook for a minute.
7. Create a slit in the habanero then give it a quarter turn and create another slit. Through this into your pan.
8. Add the fire roasted tomatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Add the diced tomatoes. Cook on medium for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then turn the stove to low and allow the mix to simmer until the sauce has thickened.
10. Drain the pasta. Heap pasta and sauce into a bowl.

This is seriously an easy recipe!!!
Here are some variations you can try:
1. Add some mushrooms to the sauce for flavor along with the onions and garlic.
2. You could add either fresh or frozen spinach.
3. Add very finely diced carrots and zucchini to the onions and garlic.
4. Add roasted bell pepper to the onions and garlic.
5. Cook the sauce minus the meat and use it in lasagna.