Sam's Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce
- sixstrings17
- Mar 17, 2016
- 3 min read
Instead of using canned tomatoes, why not use fresh instead while not adding much more time to prepare? The prep itself takes only 30 minutes and so much healthier to boot. We use organic stuff, specially for the tomatoes, and other ingredients as much as possible. Give it a try, you might find that you'd be hard pressed to using canned sauces after this. when you have full control over how it would all taste with minimal salt, sugar, and carbs. Also using organic whole wheat pasta...not like what your mama tried to feed you. Today's whole wheat pasta isn't the cardboard textured variety from years past, plus it's double the fibre (much more glucose friendly) from the non-whole wheat refined variety (typically 8% vs 4%). The texture is like the Japanese buckwheat noodle (soba).
Ingredients:
1) 15 fresh washed tomatoes (Roma variety, or as red as you can find. Ideally organic)
2) 2 TBSP dried oregano (or fresh)
3) 4 dried bay leaf
4) 5 to 6 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
5) 1 whole bulb garlic, each clove peeled and pressed
6) 1 TSP coarse black pepper
7) 3 chunks parmesan cheese with rind (Put more or less depending on preference for creaminess)
8) 2 TSP kosher salt (coarse sea salt works, just add to your preference)
9) 2 TSP regular white sugar
10) Fresh pack organic basil leaves about 28 grams (more or less, you really can't go wrong)
11) Pack of organic whole wheat pasta (half a pound or 250g, depending if you can eat 1 or 4 plates)
To Do:
1) Using a food processor/blender, slice each tomato in quarter chunks and process into small/medium sized chunks (we're not making tomato soup). We want the tomato chunks so they cling to the pasta when we marry it all up.
2) In a pot, heat up the olive oil and sautee the garlic until aroma is released. Do not burn the garlic (or the oil).
3) Pour in the pureed tomatoes. Add in all other ingredients except the basil. The sugar will neutralize the acidity. Another way is to cut up a big carrot into big slices instead of the sugar and add to simmer.
4) Cover and let it come to a simmer, about 15 minutes, then without covering, let it gently simmer for about an hour. We want most of the water from the tomatoes to evaporate. We don't want a watery sauce.
5) The volume will evaporate to about 50% of the original, while uncovered. After one hour, taste the sauce and adjust for seasoning with salt, black pepper, add more parmesan if you prefer. At this point, turn off the flame and let it sit covered for 30 minutes to an hour.
6) When you're ready to cook the pasta, heat up the sauce again in lowest heat setting uncovered then add the fresh basil. Save a few leaves as garnish to serve. We cook about 250g of pasta which makes about 3 good servings (half a 1.1 pound bag).
7) To serve over pasta, add fresh basil, parmesan cheese, fresh black pepper, and a bit of good olive oil to add richness.
15 medium sized tomatoes make a big pot. Along with using whole wheat pasta, a very healthy one dish meal that is higher in fibre, organic ingredients, and no chemicals from cans leaching into the tomatoes! Now, this sauce, could also be used for pizza by spooning mainly the tomatoes sans the liquid. (A future how to make pizza from scratch coming soon by using this same sauce) Enjoy!!
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