So humanodon posted this recipe a while ago and while it took me a little bit to work up the gumption, I have now worked up the gumption twice. I post this in order to recommend this magic sauce to anyone and everyone, and also to get some clarification on what, to be frank, is exactly the sort of loosey-goosey recipe that I tend to prefer. "Loosey-goosey" of course always has room for misinterpretation, and I'm curious how far off the mark I am.
So let's start with the tomatoes:
- 3 lbs or 1.5 kg fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded (to do this, blanch and then shock in ice-water) but not chopped.
This particular batch was 4 lbs of the $2/lb heirlooms from the local farmer's market. Which means they were tiny, tough-skinned and not amenable to the above. Beefsteaks are easier. These, you throw in boiling water for like 30 seconds, then throw in cold water, then throw back in the boiling water, then throw back in the cold water, then hope you can peel them. Seed them? Naaah, fuck that. I take the stems out.
- 1/2 a yellow onion (grated)
- 1 carrot (grated)
- 1 stalk celery (finely minced. First cut into fine strips and then cut against the grain)
- Saute onion, carrot, celery and basil stalks in olive oil and butter with the bay leaves and a pinch of salt until the carrot, celery and basil stalks are soft, med-low heat.
So here's a carrot (a red one, from Trader Joe's), a stalk of celery and half an onion. I grated them all. 'cuz you know what? Considering the goal is to reduce it pretty much to mush, I just hit it all with the microplane.
- 1 or 2 basil plants worth of fresh basil leaves (chiffonaded) and their stalks (finely chopped)
I have no idea what this means. Up in Washington basil makes a great hedge. The first time I made it I used a "trader Joe's load" of basil, and it was damn near pesto. This time I used two stalks.
- Some tomato paste (the kind in a tube is better than the cans, but canned is cool too)
The kind in a tube is like totally different stuff, and costs like $6 a tube. The kind in a can is 80 cents.
Note that here is why I love the fuck out of this spatula.
I once posted about it off-hand on Reddit and things went kind of nuts.
- Add garlic, chili peppers and paprika and cook a few minutes longer, adding more oil or butter as needed. Add about 1.5 tbsp tomato paste and a little honey, to take away the sourness and make sure everything is coated in it. Add one or two glasses of wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Let it reduce a little.
No idea how you get away with this, son. It's all going in eventually:
There's so much stuff in there that "reduction" is kind of ritual. By the time the tomatoes are in 3/4 of the bottle is in there just to get it going:
- Add the tomatoes and salt generously. Throw in the cheese rind. If you want to get fancy, this is a good time to add roasted red peppers.
Full disclosure: violently allergic to bell peppers. Don't know why. There's two serranos in here that I got no probe with. The cheese rind? Hells yeah muthafucka.
- Allow to simmer for . . . well, drink the rest of the wine at least, stirring often and scraping the sides down, tasting each time.
FUCK YEAH TAKING CHILD TO BEACH
('cuz we can do that in December 'round here)
- When the tomatoes have broken down to your liking, add the chiffonaded herbs and the lemon zest and remove from the heat and add some olive oil and some black pepper.
It's been two hours, yo, and that shit be broken DOWN!
Unfortunately I forgot the lemon. I know! In California, no less! So I zested a mandarin orange into it. DO NOT DO THIS unless you want your spaghetti sauce to taste orange-flavored. Which was kind of awesome but also kind of weird.
Oh, wait, what was that?
- remove from the heat and add some olive oil and some black pepper. Ideally, allow the sauce to cool completely and allow it to rest at least overnight.
WTF? this is tomorrow sauce? Naaah. Ain't havin' it. We're cooking that shit another hour and putting it on pasta. Now, I know I should probably make thenewgreen's magical all-day meatballs but I've got five chickens worth of deboned chickens (yay cooking show food challenges) that I have long since ground. So let's add 2 lbs ground chicken:
And, you know, some dried oregano and garlic and shit.
Mangia!
So okay. That's what happens when you've got a loosey-goosey recipe interpreted in a loosier-goosier-way. Note that it sure hasn't turned into "sauce" it's more sort of a liquidy chili. That tastes of oranges. But is still totally f'ing delicious. Give it a shot. It's empowering to not open a jar.
Start to finish: 5 hrs
Active time: 1hr and hot damn it's active. Blanching the tomatoes and grating and frying and stuff is substantially more intense than making toffee. A lot less error-prone, though.
Cost: $8 tomatoes, $2 basil, $whatever chicken, $1 tomato paste, $negligible other stuff, good for six adult-sized portions (that's three meals for two people).