Robin's SSD

This week, I am participating in Robin's recipe carnival. That Robin, she is becoming the queen of the carnivals! Anyway, she asked this week for either snack foods or for recipes that feed a ton of people in preparation for the Super Bowl. Although, to be honest, the Super Bowl no longer holds any allure for me. Oh, well, there's always next year.

I have posted this recipe for Picky Eater's Pasta before and I made it again just last night. It has evidently turned into my "what am I gonna cook?" recipe for Wednesday night. My daughter and I teach CFC class at the same Church where lil man attends CFC classes. This leaves hubby at home by himsef and we have to eat before he gets home from work. This is NOT usual in my house.

Picky Eater's Pasta

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti, uncooked

2 boxes chicken broth

2 T bacon grease or olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

6 cloves garlic, peeled and diced

1/2 lb bacon (Cut into bite-sized pieces) or pork or sausage or whatever your family will eat or nothing.

Pour broth into saucepan and heat just to boiling. Turn down heat and keep warm.I

n large pan (I use my Calphalon everyday pan for this) brown the bacon if that is what you are using. Then remove the bacon and save the grease in the pan. In the same pan, saute onion, carrot and garlic until onions are translucent. At this point you can add the meat back in and mix well. I have made this without meat and it also works REALLY well.

Now, add the spaghetti. Do not break it or cook it or try to do anything with it at this point. Just put it in the pan and let it sort of brown a little bit and absorb whatever grease is still in the pan. Then add two ladles full of the already heated broth. In just a couple of minutes, the pasta will start to soften. Stir.

Add another ladle full of broth and stir well. Wait until the liquid is almost completely absorbed and add another ladle.Repeat this until the broth is almost completely gone. As the pasta cooks, it makes the most amazing, creamy sauce. There is a whole long explanation about starches breaking down and carbs decomposing and a bunch of other stuff like that but I think it is just plain magic.

Anyway, my daughter LOVES this, my grandson eats this, my husband pretends that he is the first and second string team of whatever football team y'all are rooting for. This is an adaptation of a Rachael Ray recipe. I deleted the beans because my husband is on a restricted protein diet. That sounds very wifely, doesn't it? Actually, I deleted the beans because I didn't have any in the house the first time I made it. If you want to make the original recipe, here is the link to Rachael's recipe (pictured, courtesy of the Food Network).