Tomato sauce plain and simple
Yesterday I decided to try out Katie Bishop’s “The best and easiest tomato pasta sauce,” from her excellent cookbook Slow Cooking. Easy Slow Cooker Recipes. I bought the book for the Vietnamese Pho Broth recipe (which is exceptional by the way) but today was not a Pho day. I did end up changing the recipe a bit because in my haste to get the stuff in the Crockpot and back to my book I opened one too many cans of tomatoes so it became a double batch experiment. Further, I had no red wine in the house (not because I drank it all either) and I “hab a code” so I put in a full bulb’s worth of garlic cloves. That should help kill anything that ails me and a few vampires to boot…Hallowe’en is coming after all. The sauce is very tasty but a bit watery. However, it will be great for lasagne and I can always add a tablespoon of tomato paste before I use it.
You will need:
A Crockpot (Don’t have one you say? It’s worth the $40 or so just to make Carolina BBQ pork – I’ll post my version of that yummy treat when I make it next)
2 28 oz tins of chopped tomatoes (I had one chopped with spices and one plain old plum tomato can so I just mashed them up with a potato masher – works like a charm)
1 large onion peeled and diced
garlic cloves from one whole garlic bulb peeled and pressed (into the Crockpot – why dirty more dishes than you have to)
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp caster sugar (I used berry sugar…almost the same diff)
200 ml red wine (I just used 1 Tbsp of red wine vinegar – I assumed it was for a bit of tangy flavour)
120 ml olive oil (I used plain ol’ No Frills olive oil…all this extra virgin this and cold pressed that makes no never mind in a dish like this so save it for something where it matters)
Put all the ingredients and half the olive oil into the slow cooker and mix well. Set the cooker to low and cook for 8 hours. Season to your taste and stir in the remaining olive oil.
Next time I do this I think I’ll add some shredded carrot.
Note: In hindsight I remembered Jamie Oliver’s tip to leave the tomatoes whole while they cook down to avoid the bitterness of the seeds. This didn’t seem to hurt this sauce but next time I won’t bother mashing them up.
Yield: 6 cups
To make a simple and flavourful Chicken Cacciatore using this sauce:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Mix 3 c. sauce with the juice of one whole lemon (or 1/2 c. white wine).
- Mix in 1 can of tomato paste and 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1″ chunks.
- Bake covered for 1 hour and serve over the pasta of your choice.