Spaghetti and Gravy

After checking out our local Italian restaurant in da burbs, I had this craving for some spaghetti and gravy. I'm usually more aligned to the classic minimally sauced pastas from Italy, but I was craving an old school Italian American pasta. You know, the long cooked red sauces with big flavors, and noodles swimming in sauce. This time I made sure the noodles were cooked perfectly...fuggetaboutit - friggin delicious.

Ingredients
1/2 box spaghetti
2 boxes white button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 24 oz can of crushed tomatoes (NJ preferably)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 sweet onion diced
4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup sake (wine would do, but I had none)
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
parmiggiano-reggiano

1) Set a pan over high heat. Drop some oil in and add the mushrooms and tomato paste - salt and pepper. The key to cooking any mushroom is make sure you cook the f out of em so they develop an intense flavor - getting almost crispy on the outside. About 7-10 minutes.
2) Bring a whole mess load of water to a boil in a large pot.
3) After the mushrooms are good, drop in the onions and cook for another 5 minutes until soft. If there's a ton of mushroom juice in the pan, remove the juice for later. Add the balsamic vinegar and reduce.
4) Drop in the garlic and after 20 seconds, deglaze the pan with the sake making sure to scrape all the brown bits up. Add 3/4 the can of the tomatoes - cook for 10 minutes.
5) Salt the water and drop the pasta in the pot.
6) When pasta is 1 minute from being finished, put pasta in the saute pan with the sauce and add a ladel or 2 of pasta water - the sauce needs to be thinned out. Cook over high heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute and stir well. Cut the heat and serve with parmiggiano and more olive oil. If you have reserved mushroom jus, top the pasta with it. Buono Appetito!