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Welcome to my BLOG! I write about whatever I want, mostly food and random stories I'm trying to write. I hope you enjoy it. In loving kindness....

Friday, February 8, 2019

Two Pasta Sauces

We love pasta! If I make pasta, hubby will eat it all. I have a number of pasta recipes, some I've shared on this blog already. Here are two more that I love. The first one is so simple, yet supremely delicious. It will change your life; honest. The second is a less caloric version of a tomato cream sauce. Feel free to amp up the richness by using heavy cream or sour cream. I tend to use what I have on hand. Note also that neither recipe uses spices. Before you start dumping in the basil and other Italian spices and heaven forbid--meat, give them a try as is. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how flavorful these tomato sauces are. Enjoy.


Marcella Hazan's 4-Ingredient Tomato Sauce

1 (28-ounce) can peeled tomatoes
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt

for serving:
Parmesan cheese

Put tomatoes, butter, onion halves, and a pinch of salt in a large sauce pan. Bring to a simmer, and then lower the heat. Crush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Stir occasionally. Simmer very gently for 45 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Remove the onion. Taste for salt and add as needed. Serve with Parmesan over hot pasta or pasta alternative such as spaghetti squash. Adapted from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking."

Tomato Cream Sauce

1T olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
1 T tomato paste
1 clove garlic crushed but left whole
1/4 t agave syrup
pinch crushed pepper flakes
1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 T yogurt, full fat best


for serving:
Parmesan cheese


Heat oil in large sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until onion softens, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste, garlic, salt, agave, pepper flakes and cook until garlic is fragrant, about a minute. Add tomatoes and bring to gentle simmer. Partially cover and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Fish out the garlic. Lower the heat and stir in the yogurt. To reduce chance of curdling add a few spoonfuls of sauce to the yogurt and stir until well blended, then add to sauce. Stir until well blended. Do not boil at this point but keep warm over low heat. Cook and drain pasta. Keep about a 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add pasta and a little of the reserved pasta water to the sauce (add up to a 1/4 cup to get sauce to desired consistency). Stir well and continue to cook over low heat for a couple minutes until sauce is how you like. Serve with Parmesan cheese. Recipe adapted from one by Joy Manning.

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