This is the weather forecast for the next three days: ' Dull, grey, with a fine drizzle'. Possibly my least favourite, though maybe closely followed by 'Strong gales, driving is inadvisable', which I am sure will be here next week.

This is the kind of weather which calls for 'Sausage Sauce'.

My son, M... , is here for a few days and in unusually slumped mode. He has managed to turn his internal clock right round and is rising after dark, (about 5.30), and going to bed just before dawn. I have tried waking him every hour from about 12.00 onwards and bringing coffee and the odd snack as a bribe but he falls unconcious again as soon as I leave the room. The whole thing gets pretty wearing for both of us. Particularly when he finally gets up and runs around shouting' 'F@ck, f@ck, f@ck. I really wanted to go for a long walk today and now it's pitch black out there'. The trouble is that I don't REALLY care. I was the same at his age, in fact I was the same since I was about 10 years old, in that I felt totally awake and alert after mid-night and dead up until lunch time. The change-over point came at around five in the morning. I only adjusted to normal day-light hours when I was about 30. My perfect job was in that Gambling Club where work started at 10.30 pm. The only job I ever had where I was never late.

The trouble is, apart from the rest of the world being out of sync., that everyone treats you in a despising way as if you were really lazy. It doesn't matter how many times you point out that you actually sleep for fewer hours than they do; they always have that 'I'm not listening' face and then say something like, 'I saw your curtains were still drawn when I passed your house at 2.00'.

So, while my son has nothing much to do here I tend to leave him alone. Teenage boys really need to have someone on their side and my husband is mentally living in 1940. He uses the phrase 'When I was a boy ....' a lot. It doesn't help that my son has inherited my personality which has a strong careless and casual element. My husband was brought up in a very old-fashioned family with very old parents. He really thinks that a brisk walk in the rain first thing in the morning will blow away all your troubles. While my son and I know that lounging around in bed until mid-afternoon with a lot of toast and some new magazines leaves you refreshed and ready for anything.

To counteract the lack of outside activity, I suggested that M... should try to learn one new thing every day, however trivial and small. He agreed in principle but then managed to leave the room whenever the words, 'I've just thought of something you could do', were uttered. He had, at one point, mentioned that men being able to cook well was, 'Quite cool'. So to-day (or rather to-night), I have planned that there will be no supper until he has cooked it himself. And it will be one of his favourites: Spaghetti with SAUSAGE SAUCE. Everyone loves this sauce. So I am now going to share it with the world.


SAUSAGE SAUCE.

2 tablespoons olive oil. 2 red onions, peeled and chopped. 2 garlic cloves, chopped.
8 pork sausages, (ideally Italian spiced but you can manage without), skins removed and meat crumbled.
1 small dried chilli, crumbled. 2 bay leaves. 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped. 1/3 teaspoon grated nutmeg, (you may want more, to taste).
1/3 bottle red wine.
salt and freshly ground pepper, (add more pepper if meat was not spicy).
800 g. tin of chopped tomatoes.
Parmesan, grated. Double cream approx. 150 ml.
Penne rigate, (is best but any thickish pasta will do).

In a large, heavy pan fry onion in the oil until soft, then add sausage meat, garlic, bay leaves, chilli and rosemary. Fry, stirring and breaking up the sausage, until meat is browned. Pour in the wine and cook for a few minutes then add tomatoes. Lower the heat and simmer gently until the sauce thickens - about 45 minutes. Check half-way through and if it gets too thick and sticks add a little water. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

You can then stir in the cream and Parmesan. Or - maybe better - each person can add them to their own plate. The sauce is perfectly nice without them.

To bulk it out. I have found that adding an aubergine, (purple), cut into small dice, just before the wine makes it go further and no one, (especially fussy children), ever notices it is there.

In Italy each sauce is meant to go with a particular kind of Pasta. Apparently to do with the sauce's coating qualities. Anyway the short Penne is the one for this, ideally, but ordinary Spaghetti has always seemed, (to my untrained taste-buds) perfectly fine.



- posted by Iris @ 11/18/2003 10:53:00 AM comment