Author Archives: Chris Perrin

Sauce recipes for spaghetti: The meats

I know spaghetti sauce is primarily made from tomatoes, but when I look at sauce recipes for spaghetti, I sometimes start to think about meat.  Sure, if you go looking for sauce recipes for spaghetti and find a good recipe for Sunday gravy, you’ll see that sauce has meat, but it also has a multi-hour cook time and may included ingredients like a whole braciole.

I love braciole, but that doesn’t mean I want to make one on a Tuesday night for dinner.  Still, in the realm of sauce recipes for spaghetti, I bet we can find something that is still pretty quick and still incorporates centuries of Italian meat production.  In the end, we’ll have one of those sauce recipes for spaghetti you keep going back to over and over again.

You will need:

  • 1/2 pound Italian sausage
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/4 pound Prosciutto, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 pound pancetta, diced
  • 1 pound ground hamburger
  • 2 tablespoons oregano
  • 28 ounces crushed San Marzano tomato
  • 8 leaves basil, sliced thin
  1. In a skillet, brown the sausage over medium-high heat.  If the Italian sausage is in a casing, remove the casing before browning.
  2. Drain the sausage fat and set the sausage aside.  If you keep the sausage fat in your skillet, the dish will just taste like sausage.
  3. Add the olive oil and let it get hot.  Then cook the onions, garlic, and a healthy pinch of both salt and pepper for 10 minutes.
  4. Add the Prosciutto and pancetta.  Cook for 4 minutes so that it releases its fat.
  5. Add the ground hamburger, oregano and another healthy pinch of black pepper.  Cook until all pink is gone from the hamburger.
  6. Pour in the San Marzano tomato and bring to a boil.  Let the sauce bubble for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  7. Test for salt and adjust.
  8. Add the basil and cook another minute.
  9. Serve over pasta.

Enjoy!

Image by Abdulmajeed Hassan from Pixabay

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Los Tules

I’ve driven by Los Tules at 1656 Broadway in Kansas City, MO. I’ve seen it when I go to Kauffman Center. I’ve often wondered if it was any good, but for some reason I’ve never gone. While you probably know Kansas City for it’s BBQ, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great Mexican (and Tex-Mex) all across the city.
And let me say that I’m embarrassed that I didn’t try Los Tules sooner.
A friend took me there last week saying that a friend had challenged him to go and it was now in his top Mexican restaurants in KC. I don’t know if it’s in my top three yet, but I can tell you there’s not a day that’s gone by where I haven’t wanted to go back and dive into birria, camarones a la diabla or just a pile of chips and salsa.
When you go to Los Tules, don’t let the outside or the inside fool you. You’re not going to Los Tules because it’s super pretty or decked in out in the culture of its cuisine. It’s kind of plain, but it’s also comfortable. There’s no need for pretense or image, there’s just very nice wait staff who show you to your table and start stuffing you full of delicious Mexican cuisine.
We started with the obligatory chips and salsa. They had both mild and spicy salsa, the latter of which I augmented with some hot sauce. We then ordered paired Mexican tacos for an appetizer: one quesabirra and the other asada. Both were amazing. The asada was cooked perfectly, well spiced, and everything you want from asada. Unfortunately, it’s star was completely eclipsed by the quesabirra which was served with the obligatory consome. The quesabirria was rich, early, and had that little hint of cinnamon that you get with the finest birria. I devoured my taco and then dipped anything I could find into the left over broth. I give the birria a twenty on a scale of one to five!
For our entrees, I got camarones a la diabla (pictured above) which was shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce. I am a huge fan of camarones a la diabla and Los Tules actually has my second favorite version of the dish. The shrimp was plump and juicy, the tomato sauce well-seasoned and filled with the garlic and pepper flavor I have come to love. My only complaint was, like the hot sauce, I wanted more heat. Fortunately, I could add a little Cholula (and some of that consome broth) and I was loving life.
My buddy got shrimp fajitas. When the skillet came out, it was overflowing with onions, peppers and shrimp the size of my fist. Even better, the fajitas smelled like the good fajitas do: that blend of sizzling onions, spices, and a hint of shrimp. It was enough to almost make me regret ordering the camarones a la diabla. Almost, but not quite!
Overall, everything we ate was full of flavor, perfectly spiced and just really pleasant to eat. There was literally no weakness in anything we ordered and the birria and camarones were both fantastic. I’m definitely heading back soon. In the meantime, I hope you get a chance to go. Try the birria and the chips and salsa then order anything else. I am sure you will enjoy!

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Sugarfire Smokehouse

As a proud Kansas Citian, it almost pains me to review a BBQ St. Louis restaurant, but I must give credit where credit is due. Sugarfire Smokehouse, with multiple locations throughout the St. Louis metro area, is doing ‘cue right.

The family’s first time visiting a Sugarfire was last year. Hungry for food before driving the last four hours to home, we took my sister-in-law’s recommendation and stopped at what I thought was just a single location BBQ joint and was immediately impressed. The selection of meats (including brisket, turkey, chicken, sausage, ribs, and pulled pork) was as large as I would expect to find in a Kansas City place, it smelled like smoky meat, etc., but what really excited me boiled down to two things.

First, they have Ski soda on the fountain. I love Ski soda. But really, that was just the icing on the cake.
What sold me were the sauces. I’ve often said that the meat in BBQ is just a way to get sauce into my mouth and at Sugarfire, they offer seven different sauces. And I tried them all. From the delightful sting in the Texas Hot to the tangy vinegar flavor of Carolina Mustard, there was not a bad choice in the house. Even better, I could mix them all together and make a sweet-heat-mustard-honey badger (yes, the have a sauce called Honey Badger) mix that everything else got dunked into.

Still, that was over a year ago and I don’t make it to St. Louis that much. Until a few weeks ago. On the way to Indianapolis (where we ate at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse), we got hungry. Part of me wanted to just drive through somewhere and keep driving, but then I remembered the seven sauces. And the Ski in the fountain…

As a side note: I don’t know what it is, but in the last month or so I have developed an unhealthy fascination with French fries dipped in BBQ sauces (note the plural on that, more in a minute.) It started when we went to Meat Mitch at the new Kansas City International airport, only got worse when we actually went to Meat Mitch, and got a surprise boost when we stopped at Sugarfire.

If I could, I would have just ordered fries so I could dip them, but I figured as an adult I should order real food, too. I got a really nice chef’s salad and some of the best freaking collard greens I’ve ever had. (Yes, I realize collard greens don’t really fit the theme, but I like collards and fell in love with theirs.) A lot of greens are just bacon delivery methods, but the collards at Sugarfire have a very nice onion flavor and seem to incorporate a little of their Sugarfire 57 sauce to give them a sweetness I found very refreshing.

Anyway, I digress. The salad was amazing, but the fries were where it was at. I mixed the sauces into my favorite sweet-heat-vinegar combo. It was just the perfect blend of spice, brown sugar, black pepper, onion, garlic, and all the flavors that make BBQ sauce worth tasting and I used it for everything. Need sauce for a fry? I used that blend. Lettuce needed a little pick me up? BBQ sauce! Brisket on the salad? Dunk it in sauce mix. You get the picture.

Anyway, it was pretty tremendous and as I type this post, I realize that my chance to go back to Sugarfire may not come again soon. But one thing I know: St. Louis isn’t that far away and someday soon, I will enjoy its delicious BBQ sauce…er restaurant again.

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Sauce recipes for spaghetti: Arrabiata

I’m always surprised when looking at sauce recipes for spaghetti how simple arrabiata sauce is to make.  I want it to be complex with lots of ingredients and super difficult to make because that’s how it tastes: complex, rich, and extra fancy.

But it’s not.   As far as sauce recipes for spaghetti go, this one is pretty simple.  Like really simple.  Like if you can saute onions, you can make this sauce simple.  Where it really stands apart, though, is in the liberal use of red pepper flake, which gives it its angry Italian name.

Anyway, I encourage you to give this sauce a try while adjusting the red pepper flake to your personal preference.  If you want it less spicy, make it less spicy.  If you like the heat, leave it as is.  Either way, give it a shot and really master this sauce.  It’s an amazing palette on which you can try other sauce recipes for spaghetti.

Want a rose sauce?  Add cream.  Want a vodka sauce, add a little vodka and a little cream.  Want to add bacon?  Of course, you do.  It’s bacon.  Just fry some up and add it.  Whatever you do, just enjoy it!

You will need:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (preferably Italian olive oil)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • Salt
  • 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup red wine (optional)
  • 2 cans San Marzano plum tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 8 leaves fresh Basil, sliced thin
  1. Set the pot you will make the sauce in over medium heat.
  2. Add the olive oil and let it get hot.  Then saute the garlic for 30 seconds.
  3. Add the onions with a healthy pinch of salt and let them cook until they brown, stirring occasionally.  This will take 10-12 minutes.
  4. Add the red pepper flake and let it cook about 15 seconds.
  5. Pour in the red wine and bring it to a boil.  Make sure the steam from the wine no longer has a strong alcohol smell.
  6. Add the tomatoes and let them start to bubble.
  7. Stir in the sugar and basil.
  8. Serve over pasta!

Enjoy!

Image by bobbymp from Pixabay

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Three meat stuffed shells

When creating recipes for stuffed shells, we added fancy ingredients like shellfish.  Then we had recipes for stuffed shells that were full of cheese.  Then I went a little wild and shared a recipe for stuffed shells that was inspired by Mexican stewed meat.  Still, I think it’s critical that we go back near the basics and do something a little more typical while still seeing if we can’t gild the lily a little bit.

Thus we have the three meat stuffed shells.  This recipe is a lot like more basic recipes for stuffed shells, but we try to keep things elevated by adding extra meat.  Generally, we find that extra meat is never a bad thing.  No meat eater ever complains that there’s more meat and, believe me, extra meat means extra flavor.

You will need:

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 pound Italian sausage
  • 1/2 pound breakfast sausage
  • 1/2 pound ground pork
  • 4 cups ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 6 ounces frozen spinach, cooked
  • 1 box pasta shells
  • Cooking spray
  • 3 cups spaghetti sauce (homemade or jarred)
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella
  1. Pour the olive oil into a skillet over medium-high heat and let it get hot.
  2. Add the onion, with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper and saute for 60 seconds.
  3. Add the garlic and cook with the onions for eight minutes, stirring regularly.
  4. Add the three meats and cook until all traces of pink are gone.
  5. Pour into a bowl and mix in the ricotta, Parmesan cheese, and spinach until well incorporated.
  6. Preheat oven to 350.
  7. Prepare the pasta shells according to package directions then fill with two tablespoons of meat mixture.
  8. Add each filled shell to a baking sheet lined with cooking spray.
  9. Once all shells are filled, cover with spaghetti sauce and shredded cheese.
  10. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the spaghetti sauce is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

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Meat Mitch: In the Airport and In the City

In a move that made just about every person from outside of Kansas City happy and some people within the city limits grumpy, Kansas City finally modernized its airport.  The old KCI was a marvel of what air travel could be before 9/11 forced airports to rethink (and in some cases implement) security, but it did not age well.  Travelers to KCI could expect limited terminal seating, little opportunity to charge electronic devices and absolutely no Meat Mitch.

Okay, so perhaps travelers expecting to find one of KC’s new entries into the world of BBQ might sound a little strange.  Still, I can tell you that in today’s KCI, once you get past security, you can find a seat and treat yourself to, hand’s down, some of the best airport food I’ve ever had.  Also, if you fortunate enough to live in Kansas City, you can also drive to the 95th and Mission area and eat at their non-airport location which doesn’t require a pricy ticket to enter.

If you know much about the Kansas City BBQ scene, you may know such interesting facts as Kansas City has more BBQ restaurants per capita than any other city in the world, that people who say Texas BBQ is better are simply wrong, and that new Kansas City BBQ restaurants open pretty much every month.  For my part, I tend to stick to my familiar haunts: Jack Stack when I want great sides, Joe’s Kansas City when I want the best meat, and Q39 when someone has heard how good Q39 is.

I wasn’t looking for a new BBQ place when I tried Meat Mitch at KCI, but I definitely found a place I could love just as much as anywhere.  First, the meat is very high quality.  The brisket is tender and smoky and the burnt ends are juicy and melt in your mouth while delivering that high smoke flavor.  The ham is salty and sweet and the turkey is never dry, always velvety and has just the right amount of seasoning.

But put all that aside for a moment because Meat Mitch has curly fries.  And they have six different sauces.  At the airport, the curly fries were crispy, perfectly seasoned, and pillowy in the middle.  At the restaurant they were all that and lightly seasoned with hot honey.

And how better to eat fries than with six sauces?  Their selection includes Whomp! BBQ sauce, naked sauce, table sauce, heat, mustard, and Alabama white sauce.  They also had ketchup.  (Actually, they didn’t have the white sauce at the airport, but they did have it at their restaurant and it was good.)  So, basically what I did at the airport and the several times we’ve been to their non-airport location is do my best mad scientist impression and start mixing sauces together to form the ultimate mix.

Fries go into the ultimate mix.  Meat goes into the ultimate mix.  The salmon I ordered on my salmon salad with into the ultimate mix.  Basically, everything but the ice tea gets dunked in ultimate mix.

In case you’re wondering, for my money, the best mix is two parts table sauce to one part each mustard and hot sauce.  Still, I encourage you to check out Meat Mitch, concoct your own sauce, and then let me know what I need to try next.

Also, if you worry about what to order other than the fries (which I can’t speak about highly enough), get a two-meat platter with burnt ends and another meat of your choice.  You will get two sides (I recommend baked beans and the bacon-broccoli slaw) and then get a full order of fries on the side.  Add your favorite sauces and you will not be sorry.

So whether you are heading for 95th and Mission or are arriving at the airport an hour earlier, check out Meat Mitch.  Enjoy!

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Sauce recipes for spaghetti: Olives, tomatoes, capers, and anchovies?!

As a child of the 1980s, I grew up knowing certain things: Megatron had to be stopped no matter the cost.  Zack Morris could not be trusted.  If one were to be gagged, it should be with a spoon.  I was also taught by cartoons that anchovies were evil and should never be eaten.  They should definitely never appear in sauce recipes for spaghetti, pizza or anything else.  Ever.

As an adult, though, I have to admit that anchovies aren’t bad.  While I would never put them on a pizza or anything like that, I do like hiding them in olive oil-based sauce recipes for spaghetti because I think they bring an umami saltiness you don’t get from anything else.  I know it sounds weird, but try this puttanesca-inspired sauce recipe for spaghetti and let me know what you think about anchovies.

You will need:

  • 6 tablespoons olive oil (not-extra virgin if possible)
  • 3 anchovy filets
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1/2 cup sliced olives (black, green, kalamata or a combination)
  • 2 tomato, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon capers
  • 4 cups cooked spaghetti
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin if possible)
  1. Pour the non-extra virgin olive oil into a skillet over medium-high heat.  We want to use non-extra virgin olive oil so that it does not burn. If you only have extra virgin olive oil, try setting your heat to medium.
  2. Once the oil is hot, add the filets and break them up with your wooden spoon, spatula, etc. and the garlic.
  3. The filets will dissolve after a few minutes of cooking, then add the olives, tomatoes, and a healthy pinch of salt and pepper.
  4. Cook the tomatoes until they are just warm.  You want big chunks of tomato.  You are not looking for marinara.
  5. Stir in the pasta, letting the sauce coat it.
  6. Add the capers and let them get warm, then add as much of the extra virgin olive as you want for flavor and to make sure the sauce is as wet as you want.
  7. Optionally cover with Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

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Sauce recipes for spaghetti: A sauce with surprising amounts of vegetables

My son is older now, so society as a whole may have moved past needed to hide vegetables in other things. Still, in my day, a little bit of trickery was the only way my son got something green down his gullet. Granted, we were lucky that he would eat oregano and basil, just not anything else green, so we could manage to be a little sneaky.

All of this is to say that if you’re looking through sauce recipes for spaghetti with an eye towards being healthy, give this one a try. You can make it by sautéing a lot of vegetables and then blending them with your tomato sauce to create a thick, rich sauce that will add a few nutrients along the way. If this works, let us know. We can create more sauce recipes for spaghetti the blend in hidden vegetables and only we shall know.

You will need:

  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 cups of cauliflower, roughly chopped
  • 3 stalks celery, sliced
  • 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup spinach, finely sliced
  • 4 strips bacon, chopped
  • 1 28 ounce can of tomato sauce
  • 2 tablespoons oregano
  • 1 tablespoon basil
  1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil. When hot, add the garlic.
  2. Cook the garlic for 30 seconds and then add the onion and healthy pinches of salt and pepper.
  3. Cook the onion until it’s very brown (not burnt.)
  4. Add the rest of the vegetables with more salt and pepper.
  5. Cook the vegetables for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so they soften.
  6. Pour the entire vegetable mixture into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
  7. In the pot you cook your sauce, add the bacon and saute until crisp over medium heat.
  8. Add the vegetables back and let them get hot.
  9. Add the tomato sauce and herbs.
  10. Cook until the sauce is bubbling. Check for salt and serve.

Enjoy!

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Sausage, cheddar and apple stuffed shells

I’ve spent far too long thinking about recipes with stuffed shells. Still, it was something that people said they wanted and who am I to argue?

Still, as I was contemplating stuffed shells, I could help but wonder if there was a way to do dessert recipes with stuffed shells. To be honest, I’ve never had much luck with dessert and pasta. Especially pasta with the thickness of a stuffed shell.

However, the idea of a sweeter recipe with stuffed shells wouldn’t leave my mind so easily. So, I started thinking about how to add a hint of sweetness without making dessert and it was not too long until I remembered sausage and apples are like best friends in the culinary world. I didn’t want to stop there, though, so I added a little cheddar cheese for the bite and now we have sausage, cheddar and apple stuffed shells.

You will need:

  • 1 box of stuffed shells, prepared according to package directions
  • 1/2 pound breakfast sausage (I would not use Italian sausage for this dish)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup apples, diced (Gala apples or Honeycrisp work best)
  • 6 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • Paprika for some color

Normally when making stuffed shells, I prefer to cook the pasta in very salty water. In this case, I’m not so concerned about the “very” part. You want to use some salt, but you don’t have to use as much as normal. This is because salty shells will overwhelm the apple.

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausage until just brown. Remove.
  3. There should be some sausage fat in the skillet. If not, you may need to add a tablespoon of olive or vegetable oil.
  4. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds.
  5. Add the apples and cook until they just start to brown, maybe 1-2 minutes at most.
  6. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the sausage back in with the cream cheese and cheddar cheese. Stir to mix the ingredients.
  7. Fill the shells with your mixture and place them in a baking dish greased with butter.
  8. Mix the heavy cream, garlic powder and white pepper, then pour over the shells.
  9. Top with Paprika.
  10. Bake until the cream thickens, about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

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St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

St. Elmo's Steakhouse

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

There was once an episode of Parks and Rec where the normally stoic Ron Swanson gets positively giggly over a steakhouse in Indianapolis, IN.  During the episode, he waits to go back to the steakhouse and indulge in the finest of perfectly prepared meats.  In that fictitious world, Ron’s spirit is nearly broken when he finds the steakhouse closed.  Fortunately for us, no such sour fate exists because we have St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis.

It is a must try even if you’re nowhere near Indy.

St. Elmo's Shrimp Cocktail

Though, to be fair, you may not think of steak when you think of St. Elmo’s.  Instead, you may think of pain, pure pain… I mean shrimp cocktail!  Yeah, that’s what I meant.  See, St. Elmo’s has a shrimp cocktail sauce that appears to be made out of pure horse radish and a little bit of red.  This sauce is liberally poured over four huge shrimp for an experience you will never forget even after your sinuses recover from the spicy horseradish onslaught… (In all seriousness, it’s really good, but wow is it spicy.)

For years, all I knew about St. Elmo’s was that they had steak and nuclear shrimp cocktail.  I even ordered the St. Elmo’s cocktail sauce from Amazon to try it.  (If you do the same, please use our link?)  But last Friday, I finally sat down for dinner and it was simply amazing.

They started off by bringing us bread and salted butter.  There were rye rolls, caramelized onion rolls and these parmesan crisps that tasted like pizza.  The rye rolls were light and slightly sweet with a hint of rye.  The onion rolls were also just a bit sweet, but the onion flavor gave them a nice savory bite.  The parmesan crisps, though, were buttery and a bit cheesy and salty and perfect.

Lobster Bisque

After the bread came our soup course.  I got a very nice lobster bisque while my wife ordered the navy bean soup.  My soup was creamy and full of big pieces of seafood.  It was delicious.  However, the navy bean soup tasted like liquid bacon in the best way possible.  Mix that with a little bread and I would have been happy just eating the soup.

Then, finally, they brought out our filets.  Normally I am a ribeye man, but I wanted to try the filet and I am glad I did.  The filets they sent out were almost two inches thick.  I was afraid that they were burnt because the top and bottom were definitely cooked, but the middle was a perfect reddish-pink.  The meat was juicy and all of it perfectly seasoned.

St. Elmo's Filet

With no hyperbole, I tell you: that filet was definitely, clearly, and without a doubt the best steak I ever had.  I called my son and made him promise to let me take him so that he could try this perfect steak and because I want to go back.

With that said, I don’t know what you’re still doing sitting there!  Get on the road.  Hit I-70.  You need to get to Indy and try St. Elmo’s Steakhouse.  Get the navy bean soup.  Order more parmesan bread.  Believe me, you will not be sorry!

Enjoy!

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