Ode to Joy: The Most Blogged About Pasta Sauce in the CyberWorld

According to my fellow blogger Joy, this pasta sauce is the most blogged about pasta sauce around.  All I can say is that there is a good reason for that.  The sauce was amazing!  You can find the recipe on Joy's blog here.


This could possibly also be the most expensive pasta sauce I ever made because I went through a lot of trouble to get the tomatoes.  Because there is no Whole Foods on the Big Island, I had to go to Whole Foods Kahala to get the tomatoes (I'm sure Safeway or KTA would've had something similar, but I wanted to say I made the version on Joy's blog).  One thing led to another, and before too long, in addition to the $4 (not on sale) for the tomatoes, I had racked up a huge bill for the weekend!  All this for tomatoes!!!  Okay, the Chinese cousins are probably squirming now, right Housie? Jo?  So before we get all bent, I'm kidding, at least partially.  I had to go to Honolulu for a training, so The Help thought we'd make it an overnight trip.  Hotel, car, his airfare, frivolous meals (more about this later), and shopping, all helped hike up the price of that can of tomatoes.

In spite of the butter in the recipe, this is a light sauce which packs a lot of flavor.  It takes an hour or so to cook down the liquid.  I used an immersion blender to break up the large chunks of tomato.  Like Joy, I pulled out the onion, which The Help later used in chicken soup.  After spending all that $ for the tomatoes, I had to make sure nothing was wasted!

The Help had already wasted a ton of $ in Honolulu!  Astonishingly, we were allowed back at The Hawaii Prince. . .I guess they decided to overlook the housekeeping incident the last time we were there.  The Help heard about Sweet Es and wanted to try the stuffed french toast.  I went for the kalua pork eggs benedict.  Both dishes were good, but the fried rice had a strange taste (burnt sesame oil).  The Help wanted to try Sushi Sasabune. . .I warned him that it was impossible to make it through all the omakase courses, but he wanted to try (or be brave in the attempt).  He was 2 dishes short!  We revisited YogurStory for breakfast, and I finally got to try the fat pig fried rice.  They could teach Sweet E's a thing or two about making fried rice.  I thought our meals were done, but The Help insisted on eating another meal before heading to the airport.  He suggested Goma Tei, but I pulled rank and told him to try Little Village Noodle Shop first.  Luckily, there was ample parking (not too many people eat lunch at 2:30 pm), and we had 3 outstanding dishes:  stir-fried seafood in taro basket, sizzling short ribs, and Shanghai stir-fried mochi.

The Help also bought a new lens which, he HAD to mention, was cheaper than the hotel and the dinner.  Jeez!

LA brought me another can of these tomatoes when she and Stason came to visit, but I used it to make ribollita.  I guess I'll need to make a stop at Whole Foods when I go to Honolulu.  I'll brace myself well because I know they carry Vosges Chocolates Mo's Bacon Bar, and the Ds cannot seem to get enough of it.  Too bad one bar costs more than a Leung's 3-choice plate!