Pasta with Sauce

We start by sauteeing the onions until translucent. The minced garlic cloves are then added.

In a blender, some of the tomatoes are pureed with the onions and garlic. We are very careful not to add too many tomatoes to the blender. We have learned, from rather messy experience, that adding too much of anything to a blender can cause rather violent overflows (not quite an explosion, but it sure seems so at the time!). Since we are wearing white today, we were very careful with the tomatoes. Even if we were wearing our aprons (what did we do with them?), it is best to keep the amount of food stuff in a blender well below fill level.

As each set of tomato puree is completed, we pour it into our dutch oven, which is really nice for simmering sauce. Once all of the tomatoes have been pureed and added to the stove, we add the basil, parsley, salt & pepper, hot pepper flakes, and bay leaves. Since we are using one can of tomato puree (instead of two cans of whole tomatoes), the sauce is a little pasty, so we add water until the sauce has a more watery consistency. We then simmer it for about 30 minutes over medium low heat.

While the sauce is simmering, we begin cooking the pasta. In a large pot, we bring water (filled to about the halfway point on the pot) to a boil. We are not in any hurry to bring the water to a boil since the sauce should really have at least 30 minutes to simmer. Once the water is boiling we add the pasta and cook it for the prescribed time (12 minutes).

While the sauce is simmering, we notice that it is on the sweet side. Although some people will try to add sugar to a tomato sauce to get rid of excess sweetness, this is something of an old wives tale. Sugar will help to get rid of an acidic taste, but most tomatoes are now bred with lower acidities, making the addition of sugar to a sauce counter-productive. Instead, we add additional pepper and hot pepper flakes. We also throw in a little onion powder. A single onion for this recipe is low (that's all we have in the house), so we have no fear of over-powering the flavor of the sauce with this addition.

Once the pasta is done, we drain it in a large colander. A generous helping of pasta is spooned into bowls and topped with the sauce. We add some basil for garnish and enjoy!