Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Just as an FYI, probably best to not use whole wheat pasta in this recipe. I made it using just that awhile back and the noodles completely disintegrated and became mushy. And to think that I was trying to balance a bit of health with the fatty deliciousness!

"i've heard the argument that the most bruised lowest quality toms are sent to the crushed conveyor line, and better quality ones get sent to the whole can line. "

This is absolutely true. Here's the logic: If you had a perfect tomato, would you crush it to sell it? No.

Same goes for pre-sliced shrooms and other "prepared" veg. The stores and manufacturers and growers are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it out of necessity. If a veg or fruit is bruised, it gets made into something else, with the rotted part cut out. THEN, they charge you more for it citing "processing" as an added expense. So you're paying more for food that no one wanted to buy in the first place. At least when Costco makes chix salad out of unsold rotisserie chix, they label it as "rotisserie chix salad." Moral of the story - buy your own mushrooms and slice them. That cut made by you indicates complete freshness by the shroom's white flesh - and not a veg that has been exposed to air for God knows how long then wrapped in plastic.

I believe that milk past its date is returned to the dairy, re-pasteurized and made into other products like chocolate milk - but I can't remember where I heard that so I hesitate to get behind the statement 100%.

Back to the recipe - I'm THRILLED that CI has printed a recipe for tomato sauce containing no sugar. Sugar in tomato sauce is an abomination and, like cans of crushed toms, is a way to mask "less than stellar" produce. If toms are so bad you have to add sugar, make something else.

One more thing - whole peeled toms that are FP'd will have no skins. I believe unless diced tomatoes are labeled as "skinless" the product will contain skins which some people don't like.

I cooked up a batch of this over the weekend, and it was incredible! Thanks so much for sharing!

It's not soupy at all, and I added extra red pepper flakes (on purpose). I also used half fontina and half mozzarella ( I didn't have quite as much mozzarella in the fridge as I thought), and it was still delicious! And if you don't have an oven-safe skillet, you can transfer it to a baking dish before putting it in the oven (as I had to do).

I made this tonight too, with a few hot sausages and a can of artichoke hearts added in. I pulled a superflake move at the grocery store and forgot to buy mozzarella, so I folded in 3-4 oz of goat cheese intead. Superb.

I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and all I've ever seen is pink boxes. I associate them with my dad, who has a huge sweeth tooth- though he'll never admit it. Whenever he had a weekend off and a few extra bucks, he'd wake up early Saturday morning and go to one of the local donut shops for a dozen mixed. I'd always eat a chocolate covered donut with a Diet Coke ... I've always hated milk.

Is it wrong that I immedietly thought of something sexual when I saw the box that says, "Good things come in pink boxes?"

I didn't realize pink boxes were strictly a west coast thing.

My favorite donut shop in San Pedro, "The Donut", uses those grey boxes that fast food joints like In N Out use as to-go boxes. The grease stains on those boxes are very unforgiving. They're an embedded guilt-trip.

Here in the Silicon Valley pink boxes are for cheap bakeries and white for higher-end bakeries. So, donuts=pink, Grocery-store type bakeries= pink boxes, and pricier bakeries=white

Fascinating! I always see pink box = donuts, white box = cakes

I call urban legend.

I grew up in the Santa Clara Valley (now known as Silicon Valley) and we always used to get our pastries in pink boxes. Mind you, this was in the late 1950's (as near as I can remember). I doubt that there were a lot of Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge in those days.

I have the same recipe book, and I'm having a ball trying new recipes here and there. We just made the penne with olives and tomatoes and cannelinis, and wow, I was in serious shock about how good it was. Rich and hearty and quick! The whole thing took about 30 minutes, cooking time included. Cooks Illustrated (and America's Test Kitchen) are highly recommended for easy and tasty meals.

I'm going on vacation this evening but as soon as I get back, I'm making this! It looks freakin' fantastic!

I wonder if you could swap some pureed ricotta or mascarpone for the cream.