Summer's hanging on by a thread. I wore a skirt today and walked home from class but never took of my jacket. You can almost feel the anticipation brewing for wool sweaters and crisp leaves. I've also been fighting off my first cold of the season (new Seattle germs...) and leaning towards warm comfort foods. Grilled cheese is always a good one, but a batch of cheap cheap heirloom tomatoes a the Queen Anne farmers' market got me excited about sauce.
Warm and deliciously fresh sauce. Sweet sauce. I've added a small dash of sugar to the past few tomato sauces I've stewed up, to appease Steve's sweet tooth, and they always taste amazing. But this time I wanted to see if I could achieve the same effect in a different way: ripe heirlooms (sweet), fresh basil from my new housewarming herb-garden (sweet-ish), and removing the seeds (bitter-ish when cooked).
Ingredients:
- 3 to 4 large heirloom tomatoes
- 5 to 6 fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- salt and pepper
- dash or sweet paprika (optional)
Slice the tomatoes and remove the seeds. For really ripe heirlooms, the flesh is so dense that there will be very few seeds to remove, as compared with roma or hothouse.
Dice roughly, cover and simmer with olive oil, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes. Remove lid and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, or until sauce starts to thicken. At this point, you can blend or food-process, or let the chunks live.
Chop the basil and stir in with paprika.
Assemble with optional accouterments (sauteed broccoli and feta!)
The results? Perfectly yummy and comforting, but no comparison to the spoonful of sugar for sweet-tooth satisfaction.
i like to food process the tomatoes first, along with onion and garlic, and then simmer down - because it's easier to blend when the mixture isn't super hot. either way it works!
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