Bakaroose Spaghetti and Spice Basics

Chef Tess and our two newest chefs will be on Fox 10 AZ AM on Tuesday morning at 9:45. If you would like to get some ideas of things to cook with your kids during spring break, this is a good one to watch. The Bakeroose got together today for our second class. This is where we are starting to learn about herbs and spices and some basic cooking skills like how to cook noodles to perfection. If someone handed you a few jars of tomato sauce and said, "Make spaghetti", could you? That was what we wanted to learn. We also where just excited as ever to see each other again!


Spaghetti sauce:
1 Tablespoon oil
One large onion
1 shallot, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
40 oz tomato sauce
Italian herbs and spices (we are learning to smell and use by "feeling")
salt and pepper

We cooked the onions and shallots over medium heat with the oil until they where about clear. Then we added the garlic. In this way, we keep the garlic from getting all nasty and burned. That is good. We learned that onions,shallots, and garlic help clean out your blood. Most of the herbs and spices used in food are good to help your body digest food! So, not only does adding herbs and spices make food taste better, it's better for your body. That's cool right?

Here are some of the spices and herbs we used. Mom (Tess) showed us how to crush spices, let us smell a ton of spices and herbs, and told us how to tell which ones went together. Starting with Italian herbs and spices today, but she gave us homework. Homework?!! Yes. Spring break is for geeks...she says. We have to make a pasta salad using the herb and spice list she gave us and make it so that the spices and herbs work together. It will be fun to see how we do.

We learned the difference between a spice and an herb. Spices are the seeds and bark of culinary aromatic plants. Herbs are the leaves, stems and flowers. Did you know there was a difference? When someone says herbs and spices they aren't talking about the same parts of a plant.

The Italian herbs we smelled and then used in sauce today are:

Oregano, rosemary and basil. Mom says there are a lot more. Can you think of some? Marjoram and thyme also work with Italian food. The spices we smelled today where black pepper and fennel. There are a lot more though. Cumin we smelled, but didn't use because it goes in Mexican dishes better than Italian. Isn't that good to know?


We learned what boiling water looks like. It has big fat bubbles with chins on it. When it gets hot like that, we had an adult put the noodles in the water. It's important to add salt to the water, not only to help it boil, but also to add flavor to the noodles. Reading the noodle package is good to know how long to cook the noodle. You know what else helps? Taking one piece out when it looks like it's close to being done. Let it cool a bit, and then taste it. If it isn't hard, it's done.

We had a draining system already set up before we cooked the noodles. When they where ready we drained them right away.
Have an adult move boiling water pots and drain the noodles. Don't get burned!!

Mom told us that once the onions where clear and the garlic wasn't brown, to add a small amount of tomato sauce or paste to the onions, along with the herbs and spices. We stirred and stirred the small amount with the onions and stuff until it got nice and slightly browned. This is a very important step for nice sweet sauce without adding sugar. It gives perfect flavor to the sauce too.

This was the hardest part...waiting. It took about 5-7 minutes. That sauce smelled so good we wanted to just suck it down.

Finally we added the rest of the sauce.
Mom added some lemon zest with her grater. Lemon? Yes.

What does adding lemon zest to spaghetti sauce do? It makes it freaky good! Well, it makes it taste fresh and bright.

What do you know about salt? We saw French Grey Sea Salt...

Regular Kosher Salt...

Salt not only adds flavor, but it helps things not get moldy so fast. It kills germs. Mom says that it is used in a lot of things, like cheese and some meats to help preserve them. Pickles have a lot of salt. We are going to read about Jesus and what he said about being the salt of the earth. I'm excited to hear His thoughts on salt. What do you think?

Salt in cheese, piled on spaghetti with our sauce...

Cheeeeese.

Can we eat it yet?!

Yes. Yes we can. It was crazy good.

One of our chefs had four plates full and cleaned them every time. She sat next to my mom, and it made mom very happy.

There you go. Try spaghetti sauce without using a pre-made jar. We dare you!