Wednesday, February 13, 2008

My first tomato sauce!

Well the first sauce that I've made from scratch that is.

 

Ingredients include (but since I don't have a perfect memory, may not be limited to):

- 1 large can stewed tomatoes (steam peeled before canning)

- 1 small can tomato paste

- 3 cloves fresh minced garlic

- 4 cloves minced roast garlic (remember that post from yesterday?)

- about 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary

- about the same amount of fresh basil

- some fresh parsley

- ground black pepper

- salt

- 1/2 minced onion

- 3 sliced white mushrooms

- 1/3 orange sliced bell pepper

- a dash of oregano

- a dash of dried thyme

- a pinch of marjoram

- pinch of fennel seed

- pinch of celery seed

- a touch of cayenne powder

- 4-5 tablespoons of fresh mozzarella

- 3-4 tablespoons of fresh grated parmesan

- 1/4 or so of 1/2&1/2

All thrown in a pan with a lid and allowed to simmer until everything else was done.

 

And since sauce by itself isn't worth a darn, I made some pasta and meatballs to accompany.

 

The meatballs included sicilian and sweet italian sausages (as well as 1/2 lb of hamburger, fresh garlic, pepper, salt, as well as most of the herbs as the sauce):

 

I tried a new cooking method for them. I threw them in a pan and broiled them, turning a few times throughout:

The taste was great and the color was unbeatable, but they were a touch on the dry side. Next time I won't cook them quite as long.

 

All of this combined with the pasta to form a beauteous little meal:

 

Some more roasted garlic got mixed with butter and chilled. This then went on some french rolls to accompany.

 

For my first shot at a sauce it was pretty darn good (if I do say so myself), though next time around I will probably do slightly less bell pepper, and lots more cheese.

4 comments:

Mike said...

Oh man that looks great.

I made meatballs once from ground pork and ground beef and they were excellent. Problem was I didn't remember the spices I put in them and have never had them turn out as good since.

TomboCheck said...

Thanks Mike!

Nothing ever gets cooked twice the same way at our house. There are no recipes to follow, it is just playing it by ear.

There always ends up being dishes I wish I had written down. Home-made potatoes au-gratin have only been good once, despite repeated trials.

Kitty said...

Oh wow ... now I'm hungry. And I've already eaten too. Damn. x

TomboCheck said...

Kitty - Time to go get the goods and cook it up for dinner tomorrow!