The Elevated Dish

On many a pasta-night growing up, my parents’ favorite go-to sauce was either anything Ragu or Prego. In a blind taste test, I would never be able to tell the difference between the brands, or even know if one had been mixed with basil or not. Whenever I’d come home from softball practice, ready to dish in on some delicious carbs, I’d see that jar on the counter-top and feel deflated. In asking how we could make this better, my dad would say as though he was a spokesperson for the brand, “But I like Prego/Ragu. It tastes fine. There’s nothing wrong with it.” There was something about the whole “it tastes fine” part that I was not willing to settle for. I knew we could do better.

If only I had been applying these problem solving skills to my homework growing up, but there was what I thought to be a real world issue at hand and that was finding a way to make jarred pasta sauce taste better. A bit of sautéed onions, some garlic and red pepper flakes for the base goes a long way aromatically before adding the ready-made sauce to the mixture. Now that I’m older, I’ll pour in some vodka or white wine to deglaze the pan followed by a bit of chicken stock before adding the contents of the jar. Taking frozen or jarred food and elevating it was, and still is, my secret specialty.

This habit has crept into how I work with frozen food. There's something about these winter months that turn my hunger up a few notches as I crave hearty meals. For dinner, I looked at the bag of frozen sweet potato gnocchi with the same peculiar eye: how might we make this better? I pulled my hair back, gave my knuckles a crack, and started with the familiar base - chopped onions, minced garlic, a few dashes red pepper flakes; some sweet vermouth and chicken stock; asparagus and sliced grilled chicken breast. This concoction topped off with fresh basil and shredded parmesan may have been able to stand on its own, but adding in the frozen morsels of gnocchi brought to life that warm, fulfilling, meal I had my eye on for this snowy March night.

Seriously... you'd never bet the star ingredient of this meal was from a bag of frozen food.