New Mexico Spaghetti Sauce was adapted from a recipe I’ve had for a really long time. We changed it a bit by adding chipotle chile. It makes a great spaghetti sauce and can be served with lots of things, including all kinds of pasta, omelets, and even grains or beans. Spoon New Mexico Spaghetti Sauce over a rolled omelet and top with shaved Parmesan cheese. It could be your new favorite breakfast!
People are doing more cooking at home and are looking for different recipes. This one uses readily available ingredients from your pantry and refrigerator. If you can’t find chipotle chile in your grocery store, you can get them on Amazon.
New Mexico spaghetti sauce is quick and easy
One you dice the bacon and get it cooking, you can chop the onions and mushrooms and saute the garlic. The rest is just opening cans and jars of herbs of spices. If you’re making pasta, bring the water to a boil. You can start the pasta cooking about the time the bacon is almost crisp. While you’re waiting for the pasta and sauce to cook, make a fresh salad and you have a complete meal.
Keeping and using chipotle chile
Chipotle chile in adobo sauce can be found in the Mexican food section of the grocery store, generally in 6-oz. cans. Since I don’t use very much at one time and don’t want to waste this great chile, I use two cans and make a puree, then portion it and freeze for later use..
Put the chilies with all of the adobo sauce in a food mill to remove seeds and skin. If you have a Vitamix blender, just put everything in—the Vitamix takes care of any seeds and skin. If you don’t have a food mill or Vitamix, you can use the back of a spoon and a fine strainer to separate out the seeds and skin. Using a measuring spoon, put a tablespoon of the puree into each section of an ice cube tray. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid. Remove from ice cube tray and store in a freezer bag.
Note that it will stain your ice cube tray red! I happened to have old ice cube trays from when our fridge didn’t have an icemaker. You can often find ice cube trays in thrift shops
Once you have the frozen cubes of chipotle chile on hand, you’ll find yourself adding it to lots of things. Our famous Bottger Mansion Chocolate Chip Cookies are guests’ most requested cookies. New Mexico Spaghetti Sauce is still one of our favorites.
Quick tip for pasta
Here’s my quick tip for making pasta. If the pasta is cooked and ready before the sauce, drain the pasta into a colander in the sink. Immediately put the pasta back in the pot and add warm water just to cover the pasta. Cover the pot and set aside. This will keep the pasta from cooking any further and keep it fairly warm. It will also prevent it from sticking together. When ready to serve, drain the pasta again. When you add the warm sauce, it will heat the pasta a bit. Leftover pasta can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The draining and rinsing process keeps it from becoming a sticky clump.
I store the leftover pasta in one container and any leftover New Mexico Spaghetti Sauce in another container. If we run out of sauce, we can make something else to go on the pasta.
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