table talk / By Bob Doran

Reinventing the Spaghetti Feed

They call Rich Lucas, “The Man from M.A.R.S.” which is to say he runs a “mobile appearance restoration service” doing cosmetic repairs on cars and trucks, mostly for car dealers. He’s also an accomplished home cook.

“I’ll be doing a meat sauce that I’ve been making for 30 years or so,” he said. “I use it for everything from spaghetti to lasagna and people seem to like it. It’s one of those things where you find a basic recipe in a cookbook somewhere, then you find, if you add more of this, that’s better, and if you use a better tomato sauce that’s better.” His preferred sauce is Muir Glen, “a nice organic sauce that seems to have a bright fresh flavor.”

The meat base is ground beef, “really lean — then you have your oregano, garlic and onions — all the standard Italian stuff. And I use nice Italian olives — Niçoise — not the canned black olives.” (Note, Niçoise olives are actually French.) His secret? “Use fresh spices, no dried oregano. And cook it the day before — it allows the spices to really marry and bloom.”

Nim Mason will be cooking a traditional marinara, a family recipe — with an emphasis on family. “I grew up in a very large Italian family that owned an Italian family restaurant in Sonoma County,” she said, explaining that Frediani’s Inn in Forestville was founded by her grandparents (Clara Frediani was her Italian grandmother’s maiden name). “As a small girl I was always in the kitchen with my dad. I loved the kitchen.”

She says she chose marinara because not everyone will want a meat sauce. “I start with an onion and garlic base cooked in olive oil, with some of the onions diced bigger for a chunkier constancy, then a combination of organic stewed tomatoes and fresh Roma tomatoes. I use a little bit of Parmesan and little red wine, and of course all the Italian herbs, but most prominently fresh basil. I use sea salt — I think salt brings out the richness of the tomatoes.”

John Ford, morning show host for All-Hits KZCC, is one cook who’s planning something different — a culture jamming sauce. “I’m going to have a Mexican flare to my spaghetti sauce,” he said. “I’m not going to divulge any secrets, but you will definitely taste the Mexican spices with cilantro and fresh tomatoes. I’ll try to get as much fresh stuff as possible from the Co-op and Wildberries.”

He says he’ll tone his sauce down a notch from the way he makes it at home, but he’s still planning on using fiery habanero chili peppers. “Just a little bit; I can’t say how much, but it will have a really good flavor.”

Jessica Baker from Jade Dragon Medical Spa is thinking Chinese-Italian. “I believe I’ll do a tomato-based sauce with some Chinese medicinal herbs to help digestion, things like dazao and either American ginseng of something we call dang shen. You probably won’t be able to taste them, but you’ll feel their benefit. I’ll use tradition Italian herbs too. I’m a vegetarian so it will not have meat in it.” Food as medicine? “With Chinese medicine they use medicinal herbs a lot in soup stock, rice and so forth. Food is medicine, at least it should be. It has to taste good too, but we need our herbs to keep us healthy.”

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE >SHARE