The whole house smelled wonderful...
...I've had my spicy tomato sauce on the stove overnight.
Shelby said we need to go through the freezer and get rid of anything that's been hanging out in there too long. When it was around dinner time last night I thought I'd take a look and see what we had in there:
Bag of venison cut into stew meat.
Three clusters of snow crab legs.
Clam stock.
Two slices of pork loin (these will be marinating in some mojo this week.)
Bags of cheese rinds.
Frozen egg rolls that really need to be friend up soon.
Some prepared tomatoes from several months ago...
There is a bunch of other stuff in there but it would take up a couple of pages to list. There is even a bag of mystery meat labelled "Chayce". No worries, I can assure you our son Chayce is alive and well in Hawaii. He's even married now! Here's proof from a Facetime we did last month, he wanted instructions on how to cook steak and potatoes.
Ok, for dinner I didn't have time to thaw out much so the crabs legs are pretty much cooked already and will be easy to prep. I had a head of broccoli I wanted to try a recipe on so there's the green. Easy!
I figured while I was making dinner I might as well take out the frozen tomatoes get those simmering. Tomato sauce is easy to make and this bag of tomatoes, about 3 lbs. worth, have been neglected for so long.
Since I wasn't using the sauce last night I planned on letting it stew overnight. While I was awake I had it set on a low simmer, stirring occasionally and scraping the sides. Shelby was out and when she walked in she said, "Mmm...what's that?" Told her what the deal was and unfortunately there would be no tomato sauce eating on this night. At bedtime I add some extra water and set it on low, barely a bubble here and there, covered the pot (to halt reduction), and then went to sleep.
Woke up and like the title of the post says, the whole house smelled wonderful. Checked on the sauce, stirred it, uncovered it, and turned it back up to a very low simmer. I'll check on it later at lunchtime when I'm on break. Reason I'm cooking it for so long is to let the tomato flesh breakdown on its own. I'm stirring it to keep it from sticking to the pot and to help break up the tomatoes that way too. If I'm here to tend to the sauce I'll keep it uncovered to concentrate and thicken. I'll probably store it in the fridge and have it Thursday night, we're going to my mother's house for dinner tonight.
Here's my recipe so you can make this spicy sauce at home. You'll notice I put onion down as optional, but I always add onion to everything! Love them. I had to adjust the recipe a tad bit since I didn't use the 4 lbs. of tomatoes I usually use.
Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 4 pounds tomatoes, prepared
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 6 cloves Garlic, smashed
- 1 small Onion, diced (optional)
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- ½ cup of White Wine, Dry
- 1 tablespoon of Fennel Seed
- 2 tablespoons Dried Basil
- 1 tablespoon Dried Thyme
- 1 tablespoon Dried Dill
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Paprika
- 1 tablespoon Red Pepper Flake
- 2 teaspoons Cumin
- 2 tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
- 2 medium Bay Leaves
Before you Start:
- Some people use whole tomatoes, pulp, skin, and all. I blanch and squeeze mine before I freeze them. The tomatoes used in this recipe were prepared this way.
- I used an 8 qt. pot to keep spatter from making a mess and keep the heat even.
- If you don't want to wait hours for sauce, just cook it all thoroughly then use a immersion blender to smooth it out.
Directions:
- Add heat oil to a large sauce pan at low-med heat.
- Add garlic, onions, salt, pepper. Cooke till translucent.
- Add the wine and scrape any bits from the pan, cook for 3 minutes.
- Now add the rest of the ingredients and turn stove down to a low simmer.
- Let simmer for 4-6 hours, stir occasionally to prevent sticking and to help break up the tomatoes.
- Mangia!