Thanksgiving Pasta

I call this dish Thanksgiving Pasta, but I don't actually make it for Thanksgiving. I call this Thanksgiving Pasta because my kitchen smells like Thanksgiving when I'm cooking. Growing up, both my mom and dad cooked the turkey together. They would wake up very early to cook everything and eat by noon. We never had the traditional dinner because everything was eaten by noon, but we sure did have a great family time. Our turkey was always cooked the same way every year with 3 main ingredients: carrots, celery, and onions. Those were the 3 ingredients I used to make this pasta dish smelling like Thanksgiving morning. 

I like this way of cooking store-bought spaghetti sauce because there's more flavor to the sauce than just tomatoes. I always had a difficult time buying store-bought sauce because I can never find "the one". Of course there's new and improved tomato sauces such as portebello mushrooms, but it wasn't ever good enough for me. I wanted a traditional tomato sauce with something extra and this was it.

6 celery stalks, chopped coarsely

3 fat carrots, chopped coarsely

1 onion, chopped coarsely

10 mushrooms, chopped coarsely

1 lbs cellentani noodles or any pasta noodles

1 jar traditional spaghetti sauce

In a food processor, puree all the vegetables together. You may have to add a little water to help with the puree. Meanwhile, cook the pasta as directed on the box.

When all the vegetables are pureed into an apple sauce like texture, heat up a pot with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and brown the pureed vegies. This process will take awhile so be patient and keep stirring. If you added water to help with the puree, it may take longer because the water will have to evaporate before the browning can begin. At this point, you may also add salt and black pepper if you like. I didn't and on't worry if alittle of it sticks to the bottom of the pot...just keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the color is like a rusty reddish brown color. This process is to bring out the most flavors from the vegies.

Once vegies are all browned and smelling great....slowly add the jar of tomato sauce. Stir slowly, scraping the bottom of the pot, and make sure it's well combined with the puree. Once tomato sauce is heated then it's ready to serve over pasta noodles.