The Secret is Celery

Despite having eaten before rehearsal, I was famished after tonight's workout, so as soon as I got home, I got right to work on a big batch of spaghetti.

Many years ago, when I worked round-the-clock hours at a San Francisco power plant, we would often cook and dine together at all hours of the day. During one of these meals, my co-worker let me in on a tip for adding extra "umami" to any marinara sauce: celery seed.

It works, and I've made a point to always add a pinch of celery seed to the sauce, or if none is available, finely minced fresh celery will achieve similar results.

The spaghetti in this photo was consumed in minutes, shortly after its photo was snapped.