LAB NOTES: Sunday Night At The Improv… DCL Style

Posted On May 10, 2023

Hello, Wayne, the Mad Food Scientist here.
Today’s post is going to be a bit different than my other posts as it is about me attempting to answer the nearly eternal question. “What’s for supper?” It was Sunday Night at the Improv… DCL Style. So I won’t have many specifics, but I’ll include what I can. 

LAB NOTES: 09 May, 2023
INGREDIENTS: 
396g/14oz Pasta
800g Tofu
1  794g/28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 170g/6oz can of tomato paste.

Oreganon, a palmful
Basil, a palmful
Sage, a palmful
Marjoram, a palmful
Chili powder, a palmful
Red pepper flakes, a palmful
Granulated garlic, a palmful
Granulated onion, a palmful
Water, as needed 

WHAT I DID: 

While grocery shopping this week I found out my local grocery store has 198g/7oz bags of pasta shapes for only $0.81 apiece. So I picked up four of them. Sunday night, in answer to the nearly eternal question. I decided to boil up some of the pasta and pair it with some of the Bolognese-ish sauce that I made last week and some four bean tofu that I made a couple days before. I set the water to boil, dried off the 800g block of tofu.

Then sliced it into cubes. My next step was to coat the cubes with almond flour.

I pre-heated a large  skillet and added some unrefined sunflower seed oil. Once it was up to temperature, I put the cubes into the skillet and sprinkled some homemade mushroom seasoning. I dropped the heat to medium/low to avoid burning the tofu.

When the water was boiling I tossed in some salt and added two bags ( 396g/14oz ) of pasta to the water, stirred it and then alternated my attention between the past pot and the skillet.

When the pasta was done I drained it and returned the pan to the heat and poured in the last pint of the Bolognese-ish sauce. Of course, I rinsed the jar with water and put that into the pan too. Why waste flavour?  The pint plus wasn’t going to be enough so I grabbed a 794g/28oz can of crushed tomatoes and a 170g/6oz of tomato paste. Of course, I used water to rinse both cans and added that to the pan, I added the pan fried tofu to the sauce and brought everything up to a boil.  While the sauce and tofu were coming up to a boil, I started tossing herbs and seasonings. Oreganon, basil, sage, marjoram, red pepper flakes, chili powder, fresh ground black pepper, and more mushroom powder. You know, the usual suspects. I kept tasting and adjusting the flavour profile until it tasted right to me.  After it was on the boil, I dropped the temperature to bring it down to a simmer. Then I lidded the pot and let it simmer for a bit. I’ll be honest, I was hungry so I didn’t let it simmer as long as I would have liked. 

After I’d let it simmer a bit, I added the pasta back into the pot and stirred things together. It tasted very hearty. I dished some up sprinkled on some Parmesan, squeezed on some lemon juice and dug in. 

There was a lot in the pot, I’ll be eating on this the rest of the week. I had some for supper last night and the flavour was even better than before. I may add some split pea milk to it tonight to see if it gives it an even creamier mouthfeel. This is a flavourful, thick, and hearty dish, it is also protein packed. I will probably make this, or something like it again in the future. So, that was my Sunday Night At The Improv DCL Style

Keep Safe!