Prelude to Pasta

9/16/10

This is headed in the direction toward crafting pasta sauce. With that in mind here is brief tour of my grocery store.

There are: 24' of shelves devoted to salad dressing; 32' of canned soup; 12' of sauce and gravy mixes; 16' of pasta sauces; 16' of "hamburger helper" kits; 8' of "stove top stuffings"; 8' of "Home Style Bakes"; 16' of refrigerated entries; and 116' of frozen entrees.

All of these food products can be made with basic ingredients from a well stocked pantry, spice shelf, refrigerator and freezer. For the most part they can be made as quickly. In every case they can be made much better.

The primary advantage consumer food products -- they are a simple, mindless solution to the problem of what's for supper. In a consumer society, marketers identify a problem (what's for supper?) and offer the solution (frozen pizza).

The obvious disadvantage is most of these solutions are not very good. But worse a fundamental human experience is severely diminished. Cooking is a creative human endeavor. When the cook is replaced by a manufacturing process, a piece being human is lost. In the world of consumer products, the human connection between the cook, what's for supper and those gathered at the table becomes razor thin. A part of our social order is lost. A bit of household and household economy are eroded away.

With this, know where this blog is going. It’s an attempt to put a stop to the erosion and recover that which has been lost. Soup craft extends far beyond making a fine pot of soup. But there is time. The next couple of posts will be a more detailed consideration of pasta sauce and a few recipes too. Thanks for joining me.