Can Anyone Suggest...

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Pasta e Fagioli

[url="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pasta-and-beans-pasta-e-fagioli-recipe/index.html"]RECIPE link[/url]
serve with a nice glass of

[Thomist-in-Training]

Tomato sauce with anchovies! Get a tin of anchovy fillets. Take them out with a fork (leaving the oil in the can) and chop them up as small as you can into tiny pieces, chopping both ways to get the little bones (they're only the thickness of hairs). Put a tablespoon or two of oil in pan, add minced garlic and the anchovies, heat so that the garlic is soft and golden and the anchovies dissolve to give you brownish oil. If you heat it too hot they will just be little lumps instead, but if you cook gently they soften and melt and just give you a nice salty flavor. Then either eat the pasta with this (mm!) or add a can of tomatoes, some basil, and stir.

When using canned tomatoes, it's a good trick to add some sugar (only a spoonful at a time) because they are packed with acid.

If you use whole tomatoes and want a smooth sauce, get a wire strainer (dunno if that's the right name--shaped like a half-sphere, size of an orange or a melon, long handle) and push the sauce through after you've simmered it, using a ladle or wooden spoon. This needs patience but some of the pieces break down and then you have a very smooth sauce that looks lovely. Myself depending on my mood, I save the pieces that stay in the strainer for soup, or just put them back in the sauce.

It's not advisable to tell people that the tomato sauce has anchovies. Just let them eat it and enjoy and THEN tell them. Unless you think they may have fish allergies. Also, if you're curious but squeamish, you can start out by just using 1 anchovy fillet in the sauce, to get used to the idea.