Monday, July 18, 2011

Quick tomato sauce


I picked up a few pounds of local heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market this weekend. Olivia has been asking for pasta for a couple of days so I thought I'd make a fresh sauce with as many local ingredients as I could work in. I was please with the results. Sadly, I didn't get a photo until after the meal when I was putting away leftovers. It was pretty much THAT good.

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • small onion (I had white on hand, but might have preferred red)
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper
  • red pepper flakes
  • tomatoes (four large and a handful of cherry)
  • soy sauce
  • basil
  • pasta
  • cheese
I put the pan on medium heat and let a couple turns of olive oil heat while I chopped the onion and garlic. I add both to the hot pan and added salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I found myself salting the dish each time I added ingredients. Next I chopped the four large tomatoes. I had two different varieties that needed used. Rough cut and a dice leaving seeds and juices on the cutting board. I added the tomatoes to the pan, stirred and salted. I had the idea to cut some cherry tomatoes in half along their equator and add them to the pan. For some reason at this point I was moved to add about two table spoons of soy sauce...I have no idea why, but it seemed to work. I also chopped five or six big basil leaves and added. The sauce was pretty juicy so I let it reduce for about 10 minutes while my water heated, checking and stirring often. Then I added my pasta to the water and added a bit more salt to the sauce. As the noodles finished I felt the urge to add another turn of oil to the sauce which had reduce quite a bit. I toyed with the notion of letting the sauce further reduce, but instead drained the noodles and added them to the pan. After stirring and letting the noodles take in some of the juice, I finely grated two ounces of hard cheese over the dish, removed from heat and covered while I finished some chicken breasts I served with the pasta. I haven't posted in about seven months and the dish moved me to do so...that is all the advertizement the dish needs in my mind. I'll be repeating all summer as the tomatoes continue to make their way from the fields to my table.

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