Esteban's Espaghetti

Hola. Yeah, not much is sacred in the AlphaChef's world of food. A few years back, I made a twisted version of Mexican Chorizo Noodles and now its one of UB's favorite comfort foods.  I love it because its even easier to cook than getting a Republican to explode "That's not American!". Of course its American. We live in a melting pot of cultures and cuisine. I bang a Mexican dish against Italian, add a 'titch' of Thai and we get American Food. So there. If you don't like it go back to your walled compound.

Doing my patriotic duty, I first take one can of diced tomatoes and plop it, without draining, into a blender. I also add 1/2 chopped white onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, black pepper to taste, 1 tsp of fish sauce, 1/2 tsp of roasted ground coriander seed, 1/4 tsp of roasted ground anise and 1/4 tsp of roasted ground cumin.  Sometimes I also add handful of fresh parsley. Sometimes I add 2 chipotle peppers and other times I add couple of Thai chiles. I blend the cultural mish-mash into a puree. We'll deal with the stuff later.

For the next step, I use a large skillet that I can put a top on. Its about 14 inches across and 4-5 inches deep. I take 1/2 pound of fresh ground chorizo and massage it into a 1/2 pound of fresh ground hot Italian sausage. In the fifties, this would have gotten you lynched in NYC. We have come a long way baby.  And no, I have never been a member of the Communist party unless they cooked really great food.  Heat a skillet on medium to medium high, add enough oil to coat and then cook the mixed-background sausage through. Make sure it doesn't burn and chop it up so it stays in little pieces of loose meat. After it's thoroughly cooked, remove the meat and try to keep all that good, flavorful oil in the pan. Now, brown 1/2 pound of dry fettuccine or linguine pasta in the oil. I usually need to break the pasta in half to get it to fit into the pan. I typically do this in two batches. Once complete, remove the pasta.

Pour the pureed tomatoes and goodness into the pan. Keep stirring for the next couple of minutes until you think its cooked through. When you hit that point, and if you don't have a good vent, you've had a good cry from the onions and chiles, pour in about 16oz of chicken stock and about 8 oz of cheap Italian, French, Australian, Californian, or Chilean white wine. It can be a blend for all it matters. But no. I repeat, but no. Never sweet white wine. Yuck. Bring it to a boil. Once its boiling, add the pasta. Make sure you have enough liquid to easily cover all the pasta. Cover it for about 5 minutes and turn the flame down just enough so it doesn't boil over. Don't ask me how low. I don't know your stove. Just enough to keep boiling without boiling over. If you can't figure that out, run for Congress and call yourself Michele Bachmann. Maybe I shouldn't make that joke. I am losing my appetite.

After the 5 minutes have passed, take the lid off and add the meat and perhaps 1/2 of a finely sliced red bell pepper if its laying around and about to go bad. Mix it all in. Turn the heat down a bit more.  You want the liquid to boil off without causing everything to stick to the bottom of the dish.  If I didn't do it already, I sometimes add a 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro or parsley too. You want to cook this until it's almost dry. This means for the last few minutes you gotta keep moving it around. Also known as stirring or playing with your food.

Once cooked to the point its almost dry, plate it up.  I typically garnish with a bit of chopped cilantro or parsley, crumbled queso fresco, feta or chevre, sliced avocado and a squeeze of lime.

Eat. Feel good about yourself. And don't elect selfish, xenophobic idiots into office.