Aio e Oio and Salsa di Pomodoro

Now that you have a little equipment, you need some ingredients. One of the most reliable daily foods is spaghetti. Once you learn how to make it, you can always make it. You can have vegetables and meats in the sauce, its basically a 1-pot meal. Here's 2 that are the height of simplicity, and they're tasty. When you go grocery shopping, you will need:

• several boxes of spaghetti --- whole wheat if you like
• a few heads of garlic
• cans of peeled tomatoes --- ones that say 'Product of Italy' are best but you can use American. It may have some basil in it. You can also use fresh roma tomatoes, they give a different flavor.
• saran wrap
• a few onions
• butter
• olive oil
• hot chilies
• salt (good sea salt is cheap in Asian markets.)
• A small block of parmegiano

That's it. Now you can make:

Aio e Oio --- Raw Garlic, Chili and Oil Sauce

This is the simplest. If you pull on the bumps under the skin of the garlic, you find little cloves, about 20, in each head. Peel the 'paper' off and chop a few cloves. Chop a few hot chilies. Fill your largest pot 2/3 full of water, cover and bring it to boil on high heat, throw a handful of salt in. (For the garlic chili and oil recipe you need extra salt in the pot, since sprinkling salt in at the end doesn't work very well.)

I find that a 1lb (500g) box of spaghetti makes 4 meals. What I do is I open the top of the box, put my left hand over the opening, and turn the box over so that the spaghetti is resting on my hand in the box. Then I can let a little bit of the spaghetti out and eyeball how much 1/4 (or 1/2 if cooking for 2) of the box is.

Take how much spaghetti you're going to cook and throw it in the pot; it might not fit in --- don't break it --- just push on it with your wooden spoon, it softens quickly and will go in.

Boil the spaghetti uncovered on high heat. After 5 minutes, take a fork and pull out a single strand and take a small clean bite off the end. If you see the faintest core of white and the rest of the spaghetti clearer, then its done. It probably won't be after 5min, so every minute or 2 after that take another strand and check.

Get the colander ready in the sink.

When its done, dump the pot out over the colander to catch the spaghetti. Put the spaghetti back in the put, throw the garlic and chilies in there, and then pour out as much olive oil as you like to make it glisten as you toss the spaghetti --- roughly 1 tablespoon per person. You might want to eat this only for dinner since your breath might have a bit of garlic on it.

Variation: Aio e Oio (Cooked)

Do everything as before except, as the spaghetti is boiling, heat your frying pan, pour some olive oil in and the garlic. It should sizzle and turn a little golden, then turn it off. When its a bit cooler, throw in the chilies ( chilies burn easily, the smoke is powerful and makes you cough and your eyes water.)

When the spaghetti is done, then toss with the cooked garlic and eat as before.


Finally, the last thing you can make is the classic tomato sauce.

Salsa di Pomodoro (Simple Tomato Sauce)

Now tomato sauce is easy. You can buy a jar of it in the grocery market, but that's not what I'm going to write about here. The jar is fine, but once you open it, you have to finish it soon, and the jar sauce generally isn't so great that you keep coming back for more tomorrow and the day after. Its better when you make it, and its simple classic.

Peel off the skin of the onion. For each you will need 1/4 of the onion, the rest you can saran wrap back into the fridge.

In your saucepan, melt some butter on medium-low (about 1 tablespoon per person.) Put in some of the peeled tomatoes (about 1/4 of the 28ounce can per person). Put in the onion. Taste a teaspoonful. Cook on medium low.

Meanwhile shred some parmegiano, get the pot of water boiling for the spaghetti, and cook and drain the spaghetti. Taste the tomato sauce from time to time.

After about 20 minutes you will see the tomato sauce is thickened, shinier. Taste it again, see if its done. Take it off by 30 minutes at the latest and toss with the spaghetti, put parmegiano and mix. Cut in some more butter if you like.

Stocking Up

So the first thing to do if you want to start cooking is to get some equipment and some supplies. Since this is all about cheap and easy cooking, these will be minimal.

If you're like I was when I started cooking, I didn't know what basic equipment I needed. Some of the cheapest equipment, it turns out, is the best. I use cast iron for all skillets, griddles, frying pans --- I used Lodge and I like every item I got from them. Professionals use heavy aluminum, rich people use copper, lots of people use stainless steel since its cheap and you can get it in the supermarket. And finally there's nonstick at lots of price points --- I avoid all nonstick. Nonstick looks good in the store, but all nonstick eventually wears and peels and becomes very sticky. Then its time to BUY another pan. Better to get something that lasts and cooks well. (There are a some legitimate uses of a nonstick pan, but its more of an encumbrance in the beginning.)

Heavy skillets hold and distribute heat the best, so the copper, heavy aluminum and cast iron are better than the light stainless ones. Now of these, cast iron is the cheapest. There's a small catch, though... Cast iron needs to be seasoned (after which it is truly nonstick!) and it needs to be cleaned, dried, and oiled soon soon after each use. You can't let it sit moist for an hour or it will rust. (Even if it does rust, you can clean the rust off and then reseason the pan though.)

All of which is a long-winded way of saying:

• get a cast-iron skillet --- and you will need to also get:
  
• a small and a large stainless steel pot, just get what's cheap. If you can, get them with glass lids so you can see what's happening inside as things cook.
• A wooden spatula
• a large wooden stirring spoon,
• large stainless mixing bowl
• grater --- get a box type that you can place over a plate
  
• colander
• cutting board.
• a few plates, bowls, cutlery as necessary
  

Knives

Which brings us to the only item where spending more now pays off. Knives. I use Henckel's Classic knives, they are heavy, stainless. I also have a set of GATCO knife sharpening stones, you can hold off on these in the beginning if your market offers free sharpening. But you do have to keep your knives sharp.