Heirlooms in Heaven

Hey y'all,

Tell me you don't love pasta and I'll tell you to suck it.  No, no, that would be wrong...I would never say that, but I would be shocked and look at you like this:

Uh....What?!

Okay, sorry, monkey tangent.  But now, getting to my point: Heirloom Marinara Sauce!!  It's delicious and makes my house smell awesome.

Here's the deal, heirloom tomatoes are rare little seasonal treasures and you should use them in as many dishes as possible while they grace you with their magnificent presence.  My love of heirlooms and my love of eating brought me to making red sauce at home.  Here's the breakdown for this particular batch of heirloom marinara:

1 lb roma tomatoes

1 lb heirloom tomatoes (I like the mini heirlooms, but any will work)

1 small yellow onion (diced)

1 head garlic (finely chopped)

6 oz tomato paste

1 cup chopped basil

1 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine

1/4 TSP sugar

S&P 

**Disclaimer:  Sauce is never exact, so add salt, pepper, wine, love, etc until the sauce is enjoyable for you.  Just remember to never add too much of something when tweaking.  Nothing worse than too much salt...or love. 

First, we boil the tomatoes.  I like to cut them in half to boil as it makes peeling the skin easier.  Boiling times vary, but I let this batch go approximately 15 minutes AFTER water was boiling.  Next, pour the tomatoes into a large strainer to cool.  While the tomatoes are cooling, simmer (in same sauce pot) 1/4 cup olive oil with the onion & garlic.

Once tomatoes are cool, peel the skin as much as you can (optional, but I think it's easier/tastier to work with just the tomato pulp).  Combine in pot: onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, another 1/4 cup olive oil, a splash of red wine and salt & pepper.  While that's cooking, chop approximately 1 cup of basil to add to the sauce.  Next, let the sauce simmer on low for approximately 2 hours to give the flavors plenty of time to blend.  At this point, add the 1/4 TSP sugar to the sauce to cut the acidity.  Once we've done all that work, I like to add a little more S&P, olive oil and the rest of the red wine and let it cook about another hour.

It's important to not rush when cooking sauce.  The tomatoes need plenty of time to cook down and blend with the other ingredients and the longer you give it, the more flavorful it will be.

You start with this:

Ah, delicious & fresh!

And end with this: 

Ah, sauce I want to mate with!

For this dinner, I served the sauce over orechiette with crumbled Italian sausage.  This particular pasta works well with a thicker sauce and the spiciness of the sausage was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the tomatoes.

Here's the finished dish:

Eat it, you'll like it.

So, that's my sauce.  It's a labor of love but totally worth it.  Cooking from scratch in your own kitchen is a wonderful, wonderful thing.  Let me know if you try it, if you like it and what you do with your own sauce.  Favorite recipe?  Ingredient, tip?  Lemme know!

As always, thanks for reading and happy stuffing!

Mel