I love cooking

It may not be a fashionable or a popular hype, but if you want to add value to whatever you do, keep it exclusive and real. Honest. With good intentions; even if the intentions are to market yourself. As a fellow foodster and having made very good friends in this realm, I know what goes into writing a post. I know the hours, devotion, dedication, work, schlepp, excitement, despair, costs, and passion that go into writing one single post. And I also know the expectation … and why we do it.

Some of us do it to market something (like me with our business’s website), others do it to market their service, others do it for fun, and there are at least two biggies that I know personally doing it for sheer, loving passion and sharing – they do not even have a blog or website elsewhere!

But then … then, you get a few that do it to boost an ailing ego, to get strokes, love, acceptance, fame … who knows but one can spot them a mile away (like your slip is showing, madam) because their work is usually cold, lacks passion, looks hurriedly rushed off or … as we just witnessed yesterday, simply stolen.

I know that I am making myself a target again for the poison ivys and tweets and OMGs did you read what she now says again and so on, but I did write about it before and cautioned against lifting work. And now it has happened in our very dear midst and even though the perpetrator has been eliminated (at least his blog is, which is good enough for now), some of us are probably still being robbed of our authentic, wonderful, dear work and it wil happen again and again, believe me.

Yesterday saw me gobsmacked (trust me, at my age very little manages to smack my gob!) to witness the blatant, flagrant arrogant theft of a blogger having simply just lifted recipes and images from our two biggest blogger’s blogs! His fame and adoration from readers was snuffed out by late afternoon when he removed ALL his  old content and posted an image of a sad, shamed puppy dog with an apology. Too much too late, I say! Apparently he apologised in person to the bloggers he stole from claiming he ‘did not know’. Oy, lame dog excuse! A real tragedy is when the news broke early morning,  I saw he had had about 6 600 reads to date. But by end of play yesterday, he had tallied in excess of 10 000 reads from curious peeps. Wonder how many comments there were. I made three and none of them are repeatable … anywhere!

So, dears. Let’s just please take hands and agree that we on this platform, will keep the spirit of authenticity up and keep it exclusive and classy by being vigilante about other boggers using our work without our knowledge or permission. Remember, if they just add a link, it’s wrong and even illegal - it’s an infringement of your copyright. Using your work has to be done with your prior knowledge and permission! One seldom finds copyright and intellectual property theft in books and magazines as it is a hell of a story to remove material from print media, hello!

On the internet we are sitting ducks for the preying vultures and clinging vines who are probably only yearning to pump up their fragile and hurt little egos. To them, I have a simple message: if you think badly about yourself, just consider that you may have a point, and step it up. Being authentic and humble are probably the best you that you can be and that means, when it comes to work, delivering the best work you can, as authentic as can be. (BTW, if you ‘borrow’ content and change it more than 25%, you may call it your own).

And on that note of authenticity here is an authentic Italian tomato sauce for pasta. It is not my own and I could not find the author – he or she apparently  lived in the 14th century and died more or less around that time. All records are lost so here, with my love and devotion and humbleness is one of my favourite meals on earth because it is simple and honest and real  …   (Suddenly I have a hunch I posted this before ….. oy, but I have to go so it will have to be a repeat – so sorry but the HRT patches may have to come back )

Sugo al Pomodoro is a simple Italian tomato sauce. Like all classic dishes, there are many recipes around, each cook claiming her or his is the best or the original but it’s good to know that actually, there is no such thing as a ‘one and only’ recipe for anything on earth. Some sugo recipes contain carrot and celery, but I prefer the humbleness of tomatoes, onions and herbs –  with ‘simple’ being my idea of classic.

Classic Tomato Sauce for pasta

• 30 ml olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped finely
• 2 or more large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 x 425 g cans chopped diced tomatoes
• 45 ml tomato paste
• salt, milled black pepper and sugar
• 45 ml chopped parsley or basil
• 500 g spaghetti
• grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil and add the onion. Sauté until translucent then reduce heat and cook on low until the onion is soft and caramelized. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Cook  uncovered until the sauce is reduced and thick. Season to taste with the salt, pepper and sugar and stir in the herbs.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta as directed on the pack. When done, drain (do not rinse), season and add a few drops of olive oil. Toss and serve with the tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.

Serves 4 – 6

If you want to PRINT or DOWNLOAD this recipe for your records, click here for the I love cooking recipe website.