This was another fun, new creation. I think the taste was inspired by my love of Italian restaurants in the North End neighborhood and for this Korean kimchi-canned mackerel stew that is popular for camping/glamping? trips. There's something about that canned tinny taste that is somewhat satisfying -- or maybe I'm lacking vitamins/minerals in my diet? Who knows.
Ingredients on hand:
Canned clams (Brand Bumble Bee's Whole Baby Clams)
Canned whole black olives (Brand Early California's Musco Family Large Pitted Ripe Olives, 100% California Grown) => Psst, this is the secret ingredient of this recipe!
Canned, diced tomatoes
Pasta
Directions:
Out of habit, I like to always salt the water before bringing it to a boil for the pasta to cook in. I like to think that A) It elevates the boiling point of the water just a tiny bit (yay, my old Honors Chemistry knowledge!) so that the overall mixture cooks more quickly once it hits boiling, and B) it adds a touch of seasoning flavor to the pasta, that makes it just a tad more like restaurant quality food.
In a separate pan, I added a bit of ground beef so that the fat would render out, and added some seasonings/spices into the mix. I then added the canned tomatoes and clams and let cook. I took the whole olives and sliced them into flat slices - a shape I'm most familiar with as a pizza topping, and added them into the pan for good measure. Even after tasting it and adding salt to the mixture, and a tiny of bit of liquor, the sauce lacked depth and flavor, so I wondered what to do. I don't know how I thought of it, but I wondered if the sauce was just lacking fat, so I tried to experiment and see if I could try to make my own cold-pressed / rustic version of olive oil using the canned olives I had (also a synchronicity that manifested, as recently I had put on my board that I wanted to learn how to make olive oil for the museum), and made a slurry of the olives by blending them, then did a small taste test -- it was exactly what the pasta sauce was missing! So, I added that into the sauce in the pot, and voila! Pouf, it tasted so much better.