Pomodoro Sauce!

Have you got an abundance of garden tomatoes? I do. Last year I posted a recipe for canned salsa. Unfortunately, we are salsa-ed out, so I had to come up with another way to use up some tomatoes.

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for pasta pomodoro, a sauce made with fresh tomatoes and a few other ingredients, and loved it. So I thought I'd give it another go tonight. It's easy, fresh, and delicious.

So, along with those beautiful red tomatoes (seriously, some of them were still warm from the garden - is there anything better? Wait, don't answer that) you need an onion. Actually, the recipe calls for 1/2 an onion but since I used more tomatoes than called for, I used an entire onion. And, well, I like onion. In case you don't know what an onion looks like, here it is:

Chop it up. I usually chop it finely. Throw it in a deep frying pan with....



...extra-virgin olive oil. I have a love-hate relationship with this stuff. I mean, it's useful. Everyone loves it. It is heavily featured in every other recipe these days. But I think it tastes vile, so I use it sparingly. This recipe calls for 1/4 cup. I used about 2 tablespoons. You also need...


...four cloves of garlic, minced. Toss it in the pan with the oil and onions and cook, stirring often, until soft and lightly browned.


Next in the pan? About a cup of broth. If you don't have homemade on hand (I didn't tonight), canned/boxed is fine. I find vegetable broth highly superior to chicken/beef broth unless it's homemade, so I used veg.


Also, 2-3 T of balsamic vinegar. It's just enough to taste. Love this stuff.


And, of course, your tomatoes. Two cups, chopped. I put in about three cups.

Let that simma for a while. In the meantime, cook some pasta (I used 7-cheese tortellini, which was one of the few good things about my first trip to Costco yesterday) and round up some fresh basil. Straight from my garden this afternoon, behold:



Chop it up and add a pinch of crushed red pepper (or more, if you like it spicy).


Put that in the sauce with some salt and pepper.


Simmer a bit longer. And now, what better use of your time than to freshly grate some cheese? I used asiago:


Use a slotted spoon to serve out the sauce over your pasta, top with cheese, and voila:


Healthy, delicious, quick, and fresh. I, uh, may or may not be making it again tomorrow. Even my husband, who could probably go through life without encountering pasta again (save my lasagna) and be perfectly happy, gobbled this up and ate Charlie's leftovers. Deeeelish.

(Not my best quality photography, but I was in a rush!)

I'm hoping to get into more recipes again this fall, so stay tuned!