Well, hello you gorgeous juicy Tomatoes!
Oh! how I love the versatility of tomatoes, they can abundantly flourish with little to no care, some water and lots and lots of sun! Tomatoes like me love the sun, they're sort of like Dandelions of the fruit world in my opinion, growing and thriving thru cracks in pavements, untended fields and sidewalks. I eat one raw tomato everyday, my soups, curries and salads are incomplete without it, when rubbed on the skin it makes the most amazing skin tone balancer and spot reducer!
You can read more here about Tomato goodness for your skin: shorturl.at/jKMZ2
Sourced my tomatoes from a cart manned by an old woman with a particularly bad eye sight and a tobacco chewing mouth but her excitement to have me reminded me why I love connecting with odd people! Since the dawn of this pandemic I've been buying fruits, vegetables and other stuff from the small neighborhood sellers instead of the usual super market...some sort of a new perspective I guess.
Anyway, onto the star of this Post- TOMATOES! It was only ceremonial and customary that I followed a Pizza Dough recipe with the Marinara Sauce after many requests from the readers and friends. You can use this sauce for you pastas, pizzas, toasts, lasagnas and even with your Mooli Parathas which I did today :) So, let's get on, shall we?
Ingredients:
1.5 kg Ripe Red Tomatoes
1 Red Bell Pepper
130 grams/ 1 medium to large Onion
15 grams/ 8-10 cloves Garlic
1 1/2 tsp Dried Basil/ Use fresh 6-8 sprigs if you have, I couldn't find any
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
2 nos. Bay Leaves
50 ml Light Olive Oil (https://amzn.to/3h67a2i)/ replace with any odorless oil if not available
24 grams/ a little lesser than 1/4 cup Brown Sugar/ Sugar/ I used organic brown jaggery
2 1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Method:
Wash and score your tomatoes on their heads with an X. Put them in a deep pot with water to be submerged and blanched on medium heat for 15-20 mins depending on if your tomatoes were at room temperature or out from the fridge.
This is how they should look post the blanching. Drain and fill with cold water, wait for sometime till it's cool enough to be fine for you to handle as now is the peel the skin and discard the stem party! In the meanwhile chop your Red Bell Pepper, you can skip this if you like but I use it as it brings a certain sweet pepper scent and vibrant red color to my sauce (and why not include more vegetables where your kids and others won't even know and chow down the goodness)
 |
Once all peeled, throw them in a food processor along with the chopped pepper and make a paste that has tiny chunks still in it. Reserve. Also, pour some water in the blender/ processor and reserve that water. We'll use it.
I use this Food Processor: https://amzn.to/2XDSZtG
Chop the onion and garlic very fine. I use my handy chopper to save time and even chop the onion and garlic together to save time further.
I use this Chopper: https://amzn.to/3dIH2bJ
Heat the light olive oil in the same pot that you blanched your tomatoes in, yes- I'm all about being thrifty and use least number of pots and pans wherever I can!
Throw in the bay leaves in the hot oil for a few seconds (note: The Western way is to throw in the bay leaf just before putting everything for boil but in my experience I've found that if the bay leaf is put in the oil, it makes the whole oil fragrant and is a much dense outcome)
Add the chopped onion and garlic and fry till translucent.
Now, add the dried herbs and saute for another minute (again, I add the herbs earlier not later to bring out the oils from these leaves into the cooking oil).
Pour the tomato puree and the reserved water from your processor, with 1 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.
Bring it to a rolling boil (which should take 5- 7 mins on high heat).
Once bubbling, bring the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
After 15 mins, take off the lid and put the heat back up to medium- high and start reducing the puree, this will take 25-30 minutes, keep stirring occasionally and cover slightly if the sauce starts to splutter around.
Add the sugar now and the remaining salt (please adjust to your palate)
Your sauce is ready when reduced to half it's starting quantity and will stick to your ladle when you pick the sauce on it, like below. Turn off the heat.
Add the 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil now and mix well.
The sauce is ready and just needs to cool off, after which we can store in the freezer easily for up to 2-3 months, just thaw and use as necessary.
On another note, while we wait for things to cool down, how gorgeous are my mooli/ radish/ daikon filling for the parathas, right!
So, here's my yield for today. I'll be using in my weekend pasta treats.
I hope you enjoyed my recipe and will give it a try, you won't regret it!Till next week, STAY WELL, STAY SAFE and STAY HUNGRY!!
Comments
Post a Comment