how to make people think you cook well

You buy some fresh tomatoes and take a leaf out of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade cookbook. For a delicious pasta dinner...

Brown some ground turkey...

While the turkey cooks, get started on the drink! Hull some strawberries and fill a blender to the top. Give it a whirl...

And add some white alcohol of your choice (I used Cabbage's favorite, Bombay Sapphire gin.)

Chill in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the meal. Lay out the onion, mushrooms, and fresh tomatoes (these are fancy because they're on the vine!) Basil bunch is optional.

Remove the ground turkey from the pot and reserve in a bowl. Dice onion and combine with a spoonful of minced garlic... brown until they're happy, as Emeril would say. Add quartered mushrooms and cook a few minutes longer...

Twist tomatoes off the vine and cut into wedges (eighths.) 

When the mushrooms are soft(er than they already were,) add the tomatoes. Feel free to mush them up a little bit but don't waste too much time early on. The heat will soften them up, making the tomatoes easier to break. Cook for another 5 minutes or so... I'm not picky about the time.

When the tomatoes are easy to break, add some red Italian wine... if it looks like a lot, that's probably because it is a lot. I got a little distracted trying to snap myself pouring wine!

I used this Sangiovese from Trader Joe's... looks like the winery's name is Il Valore.

Stew for about 10 minutes, letting the alcohol cook away. Then reintroduce the turkey to the pot...

This step is optional but since I prefer my pasta sauce to be a tad more thick, I added about half a jar of prepared pasta sauce. This is Arrabbiata (so spicy Italians call it "angry") from Safeway's in-house brand (so it was cheap.) This also takes care of the art of seasoning the sauce with salt and pepper.

Now it's nice and gooey!

Add a few leaves of torn basil if you like...

Stir away and simmer for however long you like. I think left it alone for about half an hour while I cleaned around the place but 5 minutes should be enough to integrate the sauce with the fresh ingredients.

Now the obvious: ladle sauce onto cooked and slightly cooled pasta and enjoy! If you're into that fancy stuff, grate a little parmeggiano-reggiano onto the plate and add another basil leaf... almost looks professional!

ALMOST! Aren't you glad you added the fresh tomatoes? It really makes the ENTIRE sauce look homemade.

Don't you forget that strawberry drink chilling in the refridgerator! Add 2 handfuls of ice cubes and blend once more to get a cool slushie-esque libation.