Alex created an original pasta sauce recipe.
Alex loves to cook. So much so, that he puts in a lot of effort and care into it. He will watch the stove attentively to make sure nothing burns; he will cut things slowly to make sure everything is the same size; and he will use every pot, pan, and tool necessary because he’s willing to do the dishes. His food is always so good because he is willing to do all the little things. He makes a lot of delicious meals, but one meal has always stood out in particular.
One afternoon, I came home and saw he had prepared pasta that had an unfamiliar-looking orange sauce on it. It looked like blended up orange bell peppers at first glance (there was no trace of cream, so I knew it wasn’t a vodka sauce).
When I tasted the sauce, my brain cells and my taste buds lit up. I was both comforted by something familiar and delighted by the novelty of trying something completely new. However, I truly could not put my finger on what I was tasting. All I knew was that it was damn good. I asked him what he put, and he said that he blended: tomatoes, carrots, onion, basil, garlic, butter, oil, and salt.
His list of ingredients did not make sense to me at first because the ingredient list seemed like it would be for a typical tomato sauce. However, I knew that I had to be confused about something because the taste was not remotely similar to a regular marinara sauce. After tasting it some more, I finally understood why this sauce was special—Alex had completely changed the ratios of the ingredients of a typical tomato sauce, which made it a completely different thing altogether.
The sauce was complex and included multiple distinct flavors that harmonized with each other. There was a very prominent sweetness that came from the generous amount of onion and carrot he used. Additionally, the sauce was buttery, herbaceous, and garlicky—similar to a satisfying, well-done garlic bread. The application of the tomato was similar to that of a butter chicken, where the tomato added depth and acidity, but did not stand out upon the initial taste. The most prominent ingredients, by far, were the carrots, onions, butter, and garlic—which is why the sauce was orange.
To take such humble and familiar ingredients and turn them into something extraordinary and unexpected is genius to me. Alex surprises me often, but this one will always stand out. The funny part is that he never made it again. I ask him all the time if he could make his “orange sauce,” but he never gets around to it. He’s too busy trying new recipes. At least I got to experience the apex of his culinary genius.