Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe by my favorite chef, JMB
August is tomato harvest season, and my niece asked my husband to write down this recipe for tomato sauce because she has an abundant crop of tomatoes.
Since John went through the trouble of typing this up (though he often cooks this a bit differently each time), why not share it with more people? So, for those of you who love cooking with veggies (while drinking wine!), here’s a base recipe (for tomato pasta sauce, tomato pizza sauce, etc.); it can be expanded upon in an infinite no. of ways:
drink some wine
sauté some garlic and onions (and maybe carrots and sweet peppers and celery and eggplant) in good olive oil.
drink some wine
when transparent, splash in a little red wine to deglaze pan, start adding chopped up or blended tomatoes until pan is full and cook down, add more tomatoes, etc until sauce is almost right consistency
drink some wine
add oregano and basil, some sweet paprika and maybe some black pepper or hot pepper. add more basil add more garlic. add olives, capers, artichoke hearts; whatever you want
drink some wine
you can dress this up with sausage or other meat
drink some wine
a secret: add just a tiny pinch of cinnamon when you add the herbs
drink some wine
sauce is best the next day
enjoy
john m. bennett
