A few weeks ago, Epi dished on all the things we love aboutclassic Italian-American cooking. Editor David Tamarkinrevealed the reasonshe harbors a love–hate relationship with tiramisu, Sam Worley explored our love–love relationship forgarlic bread, and we cracked the code on how to recreate some of our favorite red-sauce–joint dishes at home. Like gooey rich manicotti, stuffed with a ricotta-Parmesan filling and slathered with both a buttery, cheesy cream sauceanda zingy tomato sauce.
We also found out that for the very best, richest-tasting tomato sauce, San Marzano tomatoesmay not actually be the best choice. And since we were buying three kinds of meat to toss into slow-simmered Sunday gravy, it was not only a relief to our shopping trips (since San Marzanos can be hard to source), but also a relief to our wallets (our canned tomato winner was nearly 1/3 the price).
But while turning Sunday sauce into a thing that cooks in under three hours is a remarkable achievement, it's still not something easily achieved on a weeknight. For that we turned instead to a pasta dish with only three ingredients and which cooks in 25 minutes.
In preparation for our deep dive into red sauce, we even mined the freezer aisle, takinginspiration from frozen pizza pockets. For this version, Anna Stockwell stuffed chorizo—admittedly not an Italian sausage, but one that's easily accessible and full of spicy, smoky flavor—kale, and mushrooms into deeply-flavorful homemade calzones that can be pepped, frozen, and then baked directly from the freezer.
Finally, for the cook that forgot to go shopping on the way home, we pulled a recipe from our friends atBon Appétitfor a dish made with pantry staples like olives, canned tomatoes, onions, and Parmesan. Italian sausage and jarred hot peppers round things out, but even if you don't have those things the dish will still be satisfying. After all, it's still pasta.
