SAIPUA

OK You need to hold the phone for a hot second and listen up (!) because this only happens once in a while - I'm giving you a recipe, a recipe I lovingly have "adapted" from one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette.

Granted there are probably more interesting places this monday morning on the internet, granted perhaps you've arrived here hoping for flowers, or the last photos from Paris...but you get spaghetti instead.

But you can thank me later, because maybe you get home from work tonight, and it's too late to go to fairway, and you have the following in your frigo:

- questionable ricotta left from the friend who watched your dog while you were away
- unhealthy remnants from your mother's CSA which she's dumped on you in preparation for a 3-week tour of Rome and the Mediterranean
- the ever-rotating but useless population of 15 or so cheese ends

and you feel like crying or eating out, the later option not advisable since...and this is when the phone rings (!) but remember you're going to hold the phone and write this down:

pasta sauce:

in a cast iron skillet or saute pan:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 half onion (not chopped)
a big slice of butter (which for you may be a pat, and for me is like an 1/8 cup)
red pepper flakes
sprinkling of salt

put the heat on medium/medium-low and let it go for about 20-30 or so minutes stirring occasionally. Meanwhile get your salted pasta water boiling.

Turn off the heat, remove the onion, add a good bit of half and half, and pulse 3/4 of this mixture in food processor to get it all saucy. Add this blended mixture back in the sauce pan.
When the spaghetti is done, drain it (RESERVING SOME COOKING WATER - to thin out the sauce a bit) and mix it all up, topping with a healthy smattering of grated cheese from your cheese population, and if you have it - some torn basil leaves.