semi-homemade spaghetti

Don't worry this won't become a dedicated food-blog. I'm not much of a foodie that likes to brag about it on a blog with amazing pictures that makes you wish you were me (I'm much more of a person that will just eat it, then if I remember I ate it, hype it up for everyone else). BUT, this is randiomocity and I will randomly post whatever the heck I want.

I thought it would be fun to make a cooking tutorial (and the following day's home lunch), I whipped out my camera phone and a few ingredients. Recipe today? Semi-homemade spaghetti. Of course, I could have made a post about how to make spaghetti and meat sauce from scratch. Forget the eggs and semolina, that takes too long! Let's just be lazy and make a meal in 30-minutes.

What you need:

• Water
• Meat (ground beef, ground turkey)
  
• Extras (onion, garlic)
  
• Seasoning (salt, pepper)
  
• Jar of premade sauce (Classico plum tomato)
  
• Noodles (Barilla fettucine)

What you need to do:

1. Start boiling water for the noodles. This takes the longest, so start it first!
   
   
2. Grab all your ingredients, so they're available.
3. Prepare what needs to go in. Since your water will take a while, best do the prepping while you wait. A watched pot never boils. (But that's a lie, even with all the prep I did, I stood there and watched it come to a boil)
4. Cut your extras -- in my case I diced some onion. What?! You don't know how to cut an onion. Here let me show you!
   Cut the onion in half, and as it lays, slice perpendicular to the root, but not coming too close.
   
   Rotate the knife and slice layers into the root.
   
   Slice parallel to the root.
   
   You'll get a nice even dice, while the onion stays pretty much whole.
5. Prep your meats.
   
   If you're doing a blend, you may want to mash the meats together.
   This will ensure a good blend of the meats. Otherwise, you may end up with clumps of different meats. That's okay too, but I like it mixed. Also, waiting til it cooks a little makes it easier to break up clumps. Whatever you prefer.
6. Brown the meat. Make sure your sauce pan is hot. You want it to brown and cook through.
   
7. Reduce heat and add your seasonings and extras. Here I added salt and pepper.
   Here I added garlic.
   
   Let it brown more.
   
   Let those flavors set in and make everyone in the house hungry!
8. Check on the water. If it's boiling, throw in some salt and olive oil. The salt will help flavor the noodles and the oil will prevent everything from sticking. Make sure the water is boiling, this will help prevent nasty discolorations on your cookware.
9. Add in whatever else you want. Since the noodles take a while, I threw in the onions and let them sit. If you want, you could throw in vegetables to make a primavera or whatever else.
10. Add your noodles to the boiling water!
    Make sure they're fully covered by water and stir frequently. The olive oil doesn't prevent all sticking, you will need to keep it moving.
11. Make sure everything is cooked through.
    Add the premade sauce.
    Since it already has flavor, you just need to heat it up.
    I like to simmer it longer, that way the flavors really settle in.
12. After the noodles are done (use the instructions on the box for estimated cook times, you may also want to test a noodle now and then).
    Drain the noodles and rinse with cool water. The water helps stop the cooking process.
13. Enjoy! Ok, that's not really a step in the process, but what am I supposed to say? "Plate noodles, then cover with sauce. Scoop a moderate portion onto a fork and consume. Repeat."
    

Yes, this probably took more instructions and pictures than necessary. I bet you even think that semi-homemade spaghetti takes no instruction. It's self-explanatory, yes? Well, obviously not if I made a tutorial, duh! Shows how smart you are. Bite me.