Original site for recipe is found here.
Over the last week I have been cooking recipes that are easily freezable so that during the semester I could easily thaw and have a few meals when I don't have the time to cook. In fact here's a dramatization:
Stomach growls
Me: Well it's either I starve, pick off a helpless undergrad and be known as the cannibal grad student or worse: eat ramen.
Opens freezer
Me: I have frozen pasta sauce, pesto and chili! I'm saved.
Audience applauds...freshmen rejoice
AND SCENE!
Well onto the recipe. This is a basic tomato sauce that worked fantastically on my pasta, but if you're ok with some extra flavor (who isn't?) and chunkiness (thanks to tomato bits), then you could use the sauce for any recipe calling for tomato sauce.
Basic Tomato Sauce
Cooking time: 45 minutes | Yields: 6 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 Spanish onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 3 ounces virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons fresh thyme (or 2 tablespoons dried)
- 1/2 medium carrot, finely shredded
- 2 - 28-ounce cans of tomatoes hand crushed and mixed well with their juices
- Salt, to taste
Directions:
- Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until translucent, but not brown (about 10 minutes).
- Add the thyme and carrot and cook 5 minutes more.
- Add the tomatoes and juice. (I hand crushed them as I added them to the pot, but I highly recommend you ensure they are deep in the pot when you squeeze them.* Remove from heat or at least turn the stove off while you do this.)
- Bring to a boil, lower the heat to just bubbling, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.
- Season with salt to taste.
- Serve immediately, or set aside for further use. The sauce may be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to 6 months.
Serving suggestions:
With chopped mushrooms
- Chop 4-5 white mushrooms into fourths and saute in olive oil until lightly brown.
- Mix in 1 cup pasta, 1/2 cup tomato sauce and bring sauce to a boil.
- Reduce and add about a teaspoon of chopped fresh basil and a small handful of Parmesan cheese (maybe 1/4 cup, I didn't really measure).
- Mix to combine until cheese is melted. Serve immediately!
With ground beef
- Add a cup of ground beef (browned and drained of fat) to 4 cups of tomato sauce. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 15 minute.
- Serve with fresh pasta like above.
*Why the asterisk? Well this blog is about us all learning and you can learn from my mistakes. Why should you be careful squeezing the tomatoes? Well check out my hoodie after making this sauce:
Ooooh. Now see, I make a sauce using some diced or stewed tomato juice, a can of tomato sauce, onions and peppers, garlic and some various herbs--thyme, basil, oregano, the typical Italian seasonings. Something special that I use, though, is a couple hearty dashes of red pepper flake or cayenne pepper, a hint of honey and a smidge of chili powder. If I'm making this a meat sauce, I brown the meat (typically moose or beef, I love Alaska) and then saute the vegetables and garlic cloves in the fat after it's drained. Throw it all in a big pot, season and simmer, and then it's done. This usually takes...oh, about twenty minutes, tops. I can get it cooked down and ready in 12-15 if I really need something fast. For extra nutrients, I use whole-wheat pasta on a bed of clean and trimmed spinach, layered under sauce and some cheese. Man, I love Italian food. So simple! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
ReplyDeleteLauren
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/tomato-sauce-with-butter-and-onions/ I want to try this.
ReplyDeleteThose both sound good! I wanted to go back to basics because my tomato based pasta sauce has never come out just right. But I might have to try one or both of those soon
ReplyDelete