I had several tomatoes that I needed to use that were leftover from our party this weekend.  This recipe is so easy, smells incredible and tastes even better.  Once you make your own sauce, you’ll never look back.  Plus you can control the salt and seasonings, which is so important.  You’ll love this recipe in the summer when the flavorful tomatoes are abundant 🙂

Ingredients:

4 lbs of tomatoes, washed and quartered
Olive oil for drizzling
1 tablespoon of salt (or less)
8-12 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
3 small peppers
1 onion, chopped into larger pieces
2 teaspoons of Italian seasonings
Freshly ground pepper
15 fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup of good red wine that you would drink 🙂

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.  Spray the bottom of a roasting pan with olive oil.  Then add your tomatoes to the pan.  Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings.  Add the garlic cloves & onions.  Drizzle the olive oil over top and toss with your hands.  Make sure everything is coated well.  Place in the oven and roast the tomatoes for 3-4 hours.  Then remove and add them, along with the pan drippings, to a Dutch oven along with your basil leaves.

Puree with your hand immersion blender.  Add the wine and additional seasonings as needed.  Top your favorite pasta and enjoy.  Bon Appetit!

 

— Knead to Cook

This is my family’s red sauce.  I prefer making it with freshly roasted tomatoes but due to the time of year, I’m relegated to canned tomatoes.  I hope you enjoy this sauce as much as we do.

Sauce:

1/2 c olive oil
1 medium onion, diced

1 bell pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 (28 oz) can of Cento’s diced tomatoes
1 (28 oz) can of Cento’s chopped tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
2 pinches of red pepper flakes
2 tsp of Italian Seasoning
1 tsp of Oregano

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over a medium flame.  Once hot, add the onions and stir for about 8 minutes.  Add garlic for 30 seconds.  Add salt and pepper, both cans of tomatoes, paste, bay leaves, and the remaining seasonings.  Turn the flame down as low as it goes, cover and simmer.  Stirring occasionally.

— Knead to Cook

Lent started today and for my family that meant no meat today & on every Friday until Easter.  This recipe is one of our favorites.  I’ve tried my best to make this vitamin-packed along with it being lower in fat by using very little oil.  This is a great recipe to prepare ahead of time and then just toss together with some freshly cooked pasta.

The recipe is extremely informal.  This is how I normally cook and I encourage you to tweak the recipe to suit your personal taste.

Start with one handful of basil leaves and one handful of baby spinach leaves.  Toss those into your food processor.  I grate some parmesan into the bowl as well.  I don’t use a lot, maybe a 2 tablespoons, as my kids aren’t huge cheese fans.  Salt and pepper.  4-6 garlic cloves that have been peeled.  Juice from one half of a lemon.  Zest from that same lemon.  And a 1/4 c of chopped walnuts or pine nuts.  Pulse until blended.  Then remove the spout and drizzle very slowly olive oil in with the food processor running.  I would say I use about 1 tbl, if that, of oil.  Once it comes together, I stop adding it.  The lemon juice adds enough liquid to the pesto as well.

You can cover and refrigerate or add to your pasta and mix well.

This pesto can be used to top chicken, veggies, bread etc.

 

 

— Knead to Cook