Tonight, the simplest tomato sauce in the world. I whipped it up in about five minutes of hands-on involvement and an hour of simmering time. I used…
about 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 a Vidalia onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
about 1/4 cup basil leaves, from the windowbox on my back deck, chopped into thin ribbons
about 1/8 cup oregano leaves, from the neighboring box, roughly chopped
I heated the oil (you’ll need enough to thickly coat the bottom of a saucepan) over medium-low heat and then added the onion. That sauteed until it started to soften, and then I stirred in the garlic for a few minutes. Let that go until you smell the garlic, but don’t let it brown! Then I stirred in the tomatoes, sauce, and about a third of the herbs (I’d have stirred in a pinch of salt if we were a salt-eating family, but we’re not), took the heat all the way down to low, and let it simmer (uncovered) for an hour, stirring very occasionally. After that, I took it off the heat, stirred in the remaining herbs, and served it over Rotini pasta with a sprinkling of shredded Parmesan on top.
This was wonderfully thick and rich and yummy. I think I’ll stir in a bit of white wine and maybe some pepper flakes next time, just for kicks. I also think it would do fine in the slow cooker and freeze beautifully. The family ate it quite happily. 🙂
So glad you started this blog. Every time you tweet about something you’re making, i feel inspired to do the same. I love to cook but haven’t done much experimenting lately with all of the little palates in our house. Your posts here may just give me a place to start.