World Famous Ridiculously Simple Pasta, Featuring my friend Butter

I am not reinventing the wheel here. This is one of the most blogged about recipes of last year, along with these phenomenal sounding cookies. The sauce is courtesy of the wonderful Marcella Hazan and is not an exact duplicate of hers but rather a more garlicky riff off of it.

Easy as store bought pie:

Put a quarter to a half stick of butter (oh yes) in a pan, along with an unchopped half of an onion and two slightly crushed but still whole cloves of garlic. Add a can of crushed tomatoes or a can of tomato sauce. Let this simmer for forty-five minutes and remove the onion and garlic.

At the thirty minute mark, put a large pot of water on to boil and cook your pasta. I'll be straight, many people don't cook pasta properly. You need lots of water and a big ole' handful of salt. Get the water to a rolling boil before adding the pasta and stir well for the first minute or so. Make sure you go right back to the boil, putting the lid back on for a minute or two if necessary. Taste throughout and please remove from the water while in the coveted al dente stage. You need a little bite from the pasta to contrast the silky sauce.

Again, please don't rinse your pasta. I don't even strain mine usually. I just grab it with some tongs and place right into the sauce. The salty starchy pasta water lengthens the sauce and adds to the lovely consistency. Toss around and add some basil or cheese if you like. Really though, this is gorgeous on it's own.

Everything's better with butter, you know.