Hello again, ladies and gents; gardeners and chefs alike! Welcome to fall, the season that all nature lovers happily welcome in Minnesota. It’s the season of viewing stunning tree colors, the sounds of acorns falling to the ground, and the sight of geese in the sky, as they form a “V” and bid us a honking adieu until spring. Although fall is an incredibly beautiful time of year, it also brings gardeners a touch of sadness as we watch the last remnants of our prospering gardens fade away. It’s the time of year when we keep a close eye on the weather forecast, waiting for our notice that the first frost is upon us. As we scramble to pick the last bits of our fruits and vegetables, we begin planning out what we are going to plant the following spring..even though it is months away.
As I rushed out to my garden one day to pick the remaining onions, peppers and tomatoes, I was a little sad that I didn’t have enough for an additional batch to can. There is nothing better than eating a freshly picked tomato on a hot summer day, or canning a homemade family recipe (thanks auntie Rita) of tomato sauce to get you through the cold winter months. But, what does someone do when they don’t have enough to can, or don’t want to eat a fresh tomato on a chilly fall day? My answer? Make a quick-fire tomato sauce to infuse into pasta!
How did I make it?
Katie’s Quick-Fire Tomato Sauce
- 8 Tomatoes (medium to large sized)
- 1/2 onion, Diced
- 1 Banana pepper
- EVOO (Extra virgin Olive Oil)
- Basil
- Marjoram
- Oregano
- Salt (a pinch)
- Pepper
- Garlic
- Red wine (A splash, optional)
- Sugar (a pinch, only when necessary)
- Butter
I’m sure you are thinking to yourself “Katie has messed up her list of ingredients…she missed adding quantity’s”. I know, I really suck at this, I rarely measure when I am experimenting with a new recipe. I mostly cook by taste. While I am preparing a dish, I taste as I am cooking, and make adjustments along the way, until I am satisfied with the result. It’s an endless source of frustration for my sweet hubby. We have a little inside joke when I cook something that he really likes. After his belly is full, he looks at me and says “You can make that again”, and I always reply to him “Okay Eugene”. This probably sounds completely bizarre to you, but it is the highest compliment a girl can receive. It’s also an homage to his mom and dad (Eugene), as this was his complement to John’s mom when he was growing up.
Prepping the Tomatoes
Let’s face facts, prepping fresh tomatoes can be a really big pain in the butt. You want to remove the skins and the majority of the seeds, so only the fruit and juices remain. Both tomato skins and seeds can make your sauce taste bitter. My goal in creating this sauce was that I could prepare it quickly. Although I love cooking, and prepare a lot of recipes that take time and a good deal of effort, sometimes a girl comes home from work exhausted, and wants to cook something that tastes good without putting a lot of energy into it (lofty goal, right?). In this instance, I needed to find a way to remove the skins and seeds more quickly than when I have the time to can a sauce. I decided to use my usual method of removal, but just sped up the process a bit. I sliced the tomatoes into chunks, and dropped them into a pot of boiling water (bring to a rolling boil) for 20 seconds. I didn’t want to leave them in the water too long and risk the chance of the water diluting the flavor of the fruit, I just wanted them in there long enough to loosen the skin for easy peeling. After you pull them out of the boiling water, drop them into a bowl of ice water and allow them to cool for a few minutes. This helps the skins peel off easily. This method seemed to work pretty successfully, and also pulled a lot of the seeds right into the water as well (yay, bonus!). Then I chopped them into smaller sized pieces and set them off to the side.
Prepping the banana pepper and onion
Unfortunately, it was a pretty rainy summer in Minnesota. Although my onions were pretty prolific, my peppers weren’t so successful. They grow best during hot dry seasons. Alas, I only had one banana pepper left to work with on this occasion. I wanted to bring some extra flavor, since I had a small quantity to work with, so I decided I was going to “fire-roast” it to bring another level of flavor to the sauce. To fire roast it, I simply turned on my stove and roasted it over the open flame, until the skin had a nice black crust. After it cooled down a bit, I sliced it, removed the seeds, and diced it into medium-sized pieces.
I didn’t want to overwhelm the flavor of the sauce with a lot of onion, especially since my garden onions had a really strong bite to them, so I decided using half of a medium-small onion would be sufficient. I washed the dirt off, and diced it onto relatively small pieces.
Sauce-making time!
I wanted the sauce to have as much rich, deep flavor as I could muster in a short amount of time. I decided that I was going to go against the norm, and cook it on high heat for a short duration, and pray to the cooking gods that it didn’t turn out bitter or burnt tasting. Placing a table spoon or two of extra-virgin olive oil in a pan, I seared the chopped onions on low heat (sear relatively slow to caramelize them a bit) for 5-7 minutes. A few minutes into cooking your onions, add in the minced garlic to toast a bit, which brings out extra flavor. Once the onions and garlic have a brown color to them, add in your chopped tomatoes, pepper, and spices (add spices to your taste, and do not add the sugar or butter) into the pan, and cook on medium-high for approximately 20 minutes, or until the sauce reduces by half and thickens up. Cooking the sauce on a relatively high temperature had surprising results. It gave the sauce a deep rich flavor that I was not anticipating. It tasted as though I had been simmering the sauce on the stove for hours!
There is one spice that I want to draw special attention to, sugar. That may sound like a really odd ingredient to add to a tomato sauce, but it is a secret ingredient that I learned from my aunt Rita’s sauce recipe. When you cook down tomatoes, they are inherently sweet, because the process of cooking them down concentrates the flavor and brings the sweet element out naturally. Adding in a pinch of sugar is used as my trick to counteract the acid and bitterness that can come to the forefront of a sauce. It also counteracts the bitterness from any seeds that may have made it’s way into your sauce. Towards the end of the cook, taste the sauce. If necessary, add a pinch of sugar to the sauce and taste it again to see if a bigger pinch is necessary, or if it tastes just right to you.
Wait a minute, what about the butter? Once your sauce is ready to go, turn the heat down to low and add a pat or two of butter to finish the sauce. It’s my number one weapon to finish the flavor of a tomato sauce! It elevates it to the next level by creating a rich, velvety flavor to the finished product.
Once your pasta is cooked/drained and the sauce is finished, place the sauce into the pasta. Instead of topping your pasta with the sauce, cook them together for a few minutes prior to serving. This process helps the sauce cling to the noodles and ensures the flavor is enveloped into each noodle.
When I served the dish to my sweet husband, I received back a grin and a “you can make that again” statement of thanks.
My response? “Okay, Eugene”.
Until next time folks, happy cooking!
Katie