Tonight is CSA Basket Eve and there were a LOT of tomatoes, basil. mushrooms and other assorted veggies in the crisper that didn’t get used this week. Tomorrow another CSA box will be delivered so I had to do something. With the house to myself for a few hours the evening was all clear to make sauce! Actualy two sauces…there was lots to work with in the crisper and my brother gave me a ton of oven dried tomatoes from his garden! First up was tomato pesto:
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated:
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
12 oz cherry tomatoes
1/2 packed fresh basil
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 small peperoncini, minced
salt
pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup oven dried tomatoes (substitute reconstituted sun dried or oil packed sundried.)
Process all ingredients except cheese and olive oil for one minute until smooth, about one minute. Add olive oil in steady stream. Finish by lightly processing cheese. I was after a richer flavor and remembered my brothers oven dried tomatoes so I processed those in as well along with an extra handful of basil. This pesto will be good whipped into a nice creamy pasta sauce later or spread on crusty french bread. In the meantime, it goes into the freezer!
Next up, an old fashioned red sauce recipe from Julia Child that I found on the net. It is not your modern style at all but very easy and worth the extra simmering time. This recipe tastes just like the spaghetti sauce my mother used to make. In fact, I’ll have to find hers to see if she actually got hers from Julia. Red sauces are very receptive to any ‘extras’ you have unused in the crisper and this one took the 4 remaining tomatoes that weren’t going to make it another day.
Everything in the pot then simmer for at least two hours:
And look what you get!
This goes into freezer containers as well and will be used as a pasta sauce, chicken simmer sauce, and with a few extra herbs, pizza sauce this weekend. Crisper empty and ready for tomorrow!
