Bolognese all’Amelia (a.k.a. Tomeato Sauce) and ‘How to Cut an Onion’

Hello again!  Welcome back!  Second post is going up, and I’ve chosen a recipe which is very dear to me, Bolognese all’Amelia, or as we call it in my family, Tomeato.  (Dad loves the puns.  It has rubbed off on me.  #sorrynotsorry).

You see, I started working on this recipe with my Dad when I was 15, and it took 10 years after that to really perfect it.  Dad and I would go back and forth as to how much fennel seed vs. Balsamic vinegar we should add, and whether to use diced or whole tinned tomatoes.  When I went off to uni, I continued working on my Tomeato recipe, and obviously did it my way. (What else is freedom from the ‘rents for…right?).  Dad continued to make his Tomeato (with diced tomatoes!  Whaaaaaat?) though his sauce is different every time.  Artists don’t really do recipes.  Even Mum started making a version of it because she hates garlic more than Dracula himself.  She also prefers the flavour of anise seed to fennel.  We have scintillating conversations in my family don’t we?  I bet you want a seat at our dinner table, eh?

Anywho…I love this recipe so much that I ate it for lunch and dinner almost every day during my 3rd and 4th year of undergrad (because I wanted to) and STILL eat it at least 4x/week.  It’s so well balanced between salty, sweet, and sour that I don’t even miss the cheese that would add that extra umami flavour.  (That being said, if you can tolerate cheese, NEVER SAY ‘NO’ TO CHEESE.)  This sauce also has the perfect consistency.  It just sticks to the pasta so that you get sauce and pasta in every bite rather than pasta on your fork and meat soup in your bowl.

Now don’t get me wrong, I also eat this so often because I lurve me some pasta.  (Pasta is a food group, right?) You may be wondering how I can still get my pasta fix when I can’t eat the stuff that goes into pasta; gluten-free or otherwise.  Well, of the 10 pre-packaged things that I can actually buy from a store, one of them is a particular brand’s soba noodles.  Not only can I buy it, but I can eat it guilt-free because it’s PALEO!!!  That’s right, paleo pasta folks!  Woot woot!!!!

This delightful brand is called Soba King.  They make MANY kinds of soba noodles, including 100% Buckwheat, and Sweet Potato and Buckwheat (see photo below).  You see, you may not know this (because I didn’t before I was plagued with culinary leperdom) but buckwheat is actually a seed, not a grain.  Ipso facto, Paleo folks can eat it to their heart’s content! Win!

The only slight problem with this Soba King stuff is that it’s harder to find (story of my life).  You can’t just go to Loblaws/Provigo and pick it up in the pasta aisle.  In TO, the only places I’ve been able to find it are, yet again, ‘the store that has everything’ as well as the ‘store that has almost everything‘, both of which are located in the Lower Level of the St. Lawrence Market.  In MTL, I’ve only been able to find it at Aliments Merci at Marché Jean-Talon.  It’s also da*n expensive, buuuuttt it’s my favourite food group, so I don’t care.

What’s even better about this recipe is that it’s also Paleo, as well as healthy, and da*n easy to make.  It’s what I call a “chop ‘n’ stir” recipe.  So really…you have nothing to lose in making this sauce!

Now…before we get to the good stuff, I’ve included a short photo tutorial on ‘how to cut an onion’; specifically, how to cut an onion so that you have roughly evenly-sized pieces.  That way, all of your onion bits will sautée or caramelize to an even level of golden-ness.

WAY back when I was about 10, Mum decided that the bro and I needed to learn how to cook.  I had started playing around in the kitchen when I was 7-ish but my cooking repertoire was composed primarily of fruit dipped in (perfectly tempered) chocolate.  Seeing as that isn’t technically a meal, Mum started giving us cooking lessons every Sunday.  The tradition didn’t really stick (which is why to this very day the bro pretty much only knows how to boil water and make sammiches) BUT the first lesson we learned was, ‘how to cut an onion’.  I’m sure we learned other stuff that day, but I don’t remember it.  Like I said, the tradition didn’t really stick.

Anyway, as this is my first savoury food post, I figured I would carry on Mum’s tradition.  I’ve also realized over the years that not everyone knows this awesome cooking tip, so sharing it I am.  Note:  It can be used for any recipe that calls for ‘diced’, ‘chopped’, or any other version of cut-up onion.

Ok…enough with the backstory.  More food!

First up…how to cut an onion, as depicted and summed up in 3 photos below.

First, pull as much of the dry skin off with your hands as you can, and cut the onion in half from the north pole to the south pole. (Pro tip:  If you wear contacts, wear them when cutting an onion.  No more tears for you!  Those of you with perfect vision…well you’re either gonna have to suck it up or pull out your goggles. Again, #sorrynotsorry.)

Next, pull off the rest of the dry skin until you get to the tasty white flesh.  Place one half of the onion flat side down, and start cutting horizontally.  Cut just up to the root, NOT through it!  This ensures that the onion holds together while you chop it.  Make the horizontal slices as wide/narrow as you need them for your recipe.  I generally choose ~0.5 cm slices.

Third, chop some vertical slices with the blade pointing toward the root, but never chop through it.  Again, choose slice sizes based on what you need, and consistent with what you did horizontally.

Finally, make vertical slices perpendicular to the other set vertical slices, and use the same slice size as above.  Repeat with the other half of the onion.  And voilà, (fairly) uniformly sized onion bits for you!  You’re welcome.

Now on to the thing we’ve all been waiting for, Tomeato!!!!!  Yum!

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And that is it for this week folks!  As before, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to comment below, or send me a message from my Contact page.

Toodles!  Enjoy your saucy noodles!