Marcella's Miracle Tomato and Butter Sauce

I have already written about Giuliano Hazan's recipe in which he adapted his mother's original recipe, slicing the onion instead of cutting it in half, and it is very good. But it's high time I mentioned the original because it's a miracle recipe - so much more than the sum of its simple parts. And if you use excellent butter and from-Italy Italian tomatoes, it is so delicious you will find yourself just wanting to eat it straight out of the pan.

Marcella's Miracle Tomato and Butter Sauce

Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Serves 6

Because you want to sauce the pasta lightly, this is enough sauce for 1 pound of pasta. If you're making less pasta than that, you can freeze the leftover sauce. If you do this, do it without the onion and without any cheese.

1 400g can of Italian plum tomatoes cut up with their juice
5 tablespoons butter (don't skimp here)
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Put the tomatoes in a saucepan, add the butter, onion halves, and a little salt, and cook uncovered at a slow simmer for 30 minutes or until the fat floats free from the tomato. 

Stir occasionally, taste, and add more salt, keeping in mind that you will add some parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the end. Discard the onion, and toss the sauce with pasta. Then add some parmigiano cheese and toss again.

Pegu

I was going to say that at this festive time of year, I love to have a good cocktail, but truth be told, I love a good cocktail any time of the year! This drink may be better to have in the summer when you're looking to cool down, but let's fact it, most of it live lives where we are not hanging around in the scorching summer sun and need a cool-down at the end of the day. So since we are inundated with air-conditioning and don't find ourselves in a room at sunset where fans overhead are trying to tame the sweltering heat, and I just became aware of this cocktail, I tried it and am passing it along to you now - even though it's December. Don't drink one again until the middle of June if you like, but do try it immediately. Immediately means go collect what you need for the drink right this minute, make it, and sip. The worst that can happen is you'll add it to your repertoire for next summer; the best that can happen is you'll have an extra drink to enjoy between now and June. I have to pass this along to Mary because her brother Ken is quite the bartender.

I got this drink, which is called the Pegu, from Vintage Cocktails. It has an interesting history. Apparently, it was the drink of choice at a men's club called - not surprisingly - Pegu in Burma, either in Rangoon proper or the outlying town of Pegu, during the 1920's, where, I am sure, ceiling fans were actually required to cool bodies and tempers at the end of the day. Walter doesn't like it as much as I do. Maybe my new-found affection for it has to do with the fact that we are watching Jewel in the Crown these days (thanks to Netflix), and I can imagine British officers in India putting a few of these away at the end of the day. Anyway, give it a go, and see what you think. I'm interested in your opinion.

1-1/2 oz. gin (I like Plymouth)
1/2 oz. orange curacao (Pierre Ferrand is nice) or triple sec
3/4 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 dashes Angostura Bitters (I suspect that orange bitters would be perfect here, but they are much harder to find)

Put everything in a metal cocktail shaker and shake until the towel you are holding the shaker with sticks. You want this icy, icy, icy.