The Family Table: Hunger, logic, charm and noodles
When you buy food for five and pack it into one fridge, sometimes what’s there is easy to forget.
And I truly hate to waste food.
We have buffet days at our house regularly — you know what I mean, right? Those days where there are about 10 bowls with a little of this or that in them, and everyone beats a path to the kitchen to get the last two tablespoons of the same thing?
In our house, the last bit of anything pasta-based is apt to cause a spirited debate among the three children as they lobby like professionals to see who gets that extra noodle on their plate.
Gabriel’s default is to claim teenage hunger. He’s 15, and when the right mood strikes him, he can eat as much as everyone combined. The noodles, he’ll say, should land on his plate.
Ten-year-old Wesley turns to logic. For his school lunch, he’ll tell us, he had ham and cheese roll ups, and so he’s obviously deficient on carbohydrates, which he so richly needs for energy. (We always chuckle when Wes talks about energy — he’s the same boy who once said his spirit animal would be the sloth.)
And then there’s Josie, newly 8. Her default is charm. She dips her head to the side, juts her chin out slightly, and bats her big brown eyes. Ah, that girl.
So it often goes that we make a second box, because how could we possible decide between hunger, energy and charm?
Everyone, of course, also needs sauce of some variety.
It so happened on a recent occasion that I was lacking any. Thankfully, I’d forgotten about some tomatoes I had stashed in the fridge. Whipping up my own sauce wasn’t all that difficult. It wasn’t cooked low and slow with short ribs, the way I usually do it.
It was light and fresh, and more of a marinara-style sauce. The three noodle lovers devoured their pasta, and sauce. Mike and I, meanwhile, ate at the home buffet.
Quick tomato sauce
3-4 large ripe tomatoes, quartered and seeded
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 small onion, minced
Several leaves of fresh basil, torn
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2-3 tablespoons chicken or beef broth
Salt, pepper
Sugar if necessary
Sautee the tomatoes, garlic and onion over medium heat until all are softened and combined.
Add the basil and parsley and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Put the mixture in a blender and pulse a couple times to make everything into a puree. Add a couple of tablespoons of broth, if necessary, to thin it out. Taste, and add sugar to taste.