Weeks
Senior Cook
Pomodoro (Italian for "Tomato") sauce is the mother sauce of about a half-dozen different Italian sauces. You can go from this recipe to any number of permutations on the standard American "spaghetti sauce", and it also makes a great base for old classical Italian sauces such as Puttanesca or Bolognese.
This is a crock pot recipe unless you have 4 hours to sit and babysit a stockpot full of sauce so it doesn't burn.
You will need:
6-8 cans diced tomatoes (or dice them yourself!)
1 tbsp crushed basil leaves
1 tbsp ground oregano
4 peeled carrots
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
half of a red onion, minced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 bell pepper, small dice
1 butternut squash, small dice (no seeds!)
salt and fresh-ground pepper (just have some on hand)
1 can tomato paste
Ok, you've done your prep work and have your mise en place set up, right? The tomatoes are diced (or cans are open), the carrots are peeled and standing by, and your small-cut veggies are sitting on a tray in ramekins waiting for you. If not, stop reading and go prep your mise.
Right, toss the tomatoes, spices and carrots into the crock pot and turn her on to low heat. The carrots will absorb a lot of the acidity of the tomatoes so that you don't have to worry as much about pH balancing the sauce somewhere else on the plate when you finish it. About the spices, if you want to use fresh ones from the garden, double the amount and make sure you get a good, fine mince on it.
Now get out a great big fry pan and threaten your kids with it.
Now that you've got that accomplished, get it on some heat (medium-high) and heat up the olive oil so that it coats the pan. Throw in the garlic and onion and cook until the onion starts to become translucent. Add the pepper and squash and "sweat" them with a little water. Transfer all of this to the crock pot.
Turn the crock pot to "high" and go watch the Godfather series.
When you come back, tears in your eyes from the tragic ending of the 3rd movie, remove the carrots from the sauce and discard them, and add the tomato paste. It should take only one can to even out and thicken the sauce nicely. Salt and pepper to taste.
You can serve this sauce immediately over angel-hair pasta for Pasta Pomodoro, or you can ladle some of this sauce into a saucepan with cooked italian sausage and ground beef for a good meat sauce. Also goes well with a lightly breaded and fried chicken breast covered in parmesan cheese for some Chicken Parmesan.
You can also serve almost any wine with this sauce, depending on the meat compliment you choose for the sauce. By itself, a refreshing, cool white wine would go best. In a meat sauce? Try Coppola Merlot.
If I forgot something, tell me and I'll edit.
This is a crock pot recipe unless you have 4 hours to sit and babysit a stockpot full of sauce so it doesn't burn.
You will need:
6-8 cans diced tomatoes (or dice them yourself!)
1 tbsp crushed basil leaves
1 tbsp ground oregano
4 peeled carrots
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
half of a red onion, minced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 bell pepper, small dice
1 butternut squash, small dice (no seeds!)
salt and fresh-ground pepper (just have some on hand)
1 can tomato paste
Ok, you've done your prep work and have your mise en place set up, right? The tomatoes are diced (or cans are open), the carrots are peeled and standing by, and your small-cut veggies are sitting on a tray in ramekins waiting for you. If not, stop reading and go prep your mise.
Right, toss the tomatoes, spices and carrots into the crock pot and turn her on to low heat. The carrots will absorb a lot of the acidity of the tomatoes so that you don't have to worry as much about pH balancing the sauce somewhere else on the plate when you finish it. About the spices, if you want to use fresh ones from the garden, double the amount and make sure you get a good, fine mince on it.
Now get out a great big fry pan and threaten your kids with it.
Now that you've got that accomplished, get it on some heat (medium-high) and heat up the olive oil so that it coats the pan. Throw in the garlic and onion and cook until the onion starts to become translucent. Add the pepper and squash and "sweat" them with a little water. Transfer all of this to the crock pot.
Turn the crock pot to "high" and go watch the Godfather series.
When you come back, tears in your eyes from the tragic ending of the 3rd movie, remove the carrots from the sauce and discard them, and add the tomato paste. It should take only one can to even out and thicken the sauce nicely. Salt and pepper to taste.
You can serve this sauce immediately over angel-hair pasta for Pasta Pomodoro, or you can ladle some of this sauce into a saucepan with cooked italian sausage and ground beef for a good meat sauce. Also goes well with a lightly breaded and fried chicken breast covered in parmesan cheese for some Chicken Parmesan.
You can also serve almost any wine with this sauce, depending on the meat compliment you choose for the sauce. By itself, a refreshing, cool white wine would go best. In a meat sauce? Try Coppola Merlot.
If I forgot something, tell me and I'll edit.