Culinary Class: Penne Pasta with Tomato Sauce

We have finally gotten around to actually cooking something in my culinary class. We discussed boiling, simmering, and blanching, and got to try our hands at it. I must admit, I didn't think that the basic class would be quite this, well, basic.

We diced some onion, carrot, and celery to make a mirepoix. We turned one small head of broccoli into florets, and blanched them. We blanched, peeled, and diced two tomatoes. We also blanched a half pound of penne pasta. Finally, we minced five cloves of garlic and some parsley, thyme, and oregano.

With our mise en place done, we made the sauce. We browned some ground beef, then added the mirepoix, garlic, tomatoes, some tomato paste, some tomato juice, and the herbs. This simmered a bit (but not nearly long enough). We then added in the broccoli and pasta, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

To be perfectly honest, I've made better. The carrots added too much sweetness for my taste, and there was too much parsley and too little thyme and oregano. Not a fan of broccoli in a red sauce, either.

The focus for this class, though, is supposed to be on technique. I guess we get to talk about flavor in the intermediate class.