Basil Sweet Quick Sauce
This sauce is so easy to make you aren’t even going to believe it could taste so good! I had other plans for dinner last night, but it was such a cold, windy, rainy night that I didn’t want to go out and get the ingredients I needed so the men in my house are always happy to have pasta. I always have the ingredients in the house to whip up some good sauce or “Italian concoctions” as my Grandma Sue used to say! 🙂
No more sauce out of the jar people just follow this recipe!
Ingredients:
Olive Oil – 2 turns of the pan
Garlic – 4 cloves cut in half
Onion – 1/2 medium – sliced
Parmigiano Cheese – 3 Tbsps
1 15 oz Can of crushed tomatoes
1 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tbsp of unsalted, sweet butter
Salt, Pepper and Garlic Salt to taste
A palmful of chopped parsley
A palmful of chopped basil
1 lb of Short cut pasta of your liking – I like Ziti or Penne for this sauce
Directions:
In a large pot bring water and a generous handful of salt to a boil – don’t add the pasta until you have the sauce prepared and simmering for about 15 minutes.
In a large skillet over medium heat add two turns of olive oil and the garlic and cook until the garlic turns golden brown, then add the sliced onions and some salt, pepper and garlic salt and caramelize the onions. At this point add the crush tomatoes, sugar, butter, and more salt, pepper and garlic salt. I usually start light and taste it until it is pleasing to my palette – you will need to do the same. Simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes and taste it again. It is important to make sure the acid of the tomatoes has been cut down and if not add a little more sugar. In addition at this point add the chopped parsley and the half of the Parmigiano cheese. Simmer for another 10 minutes, taste, add any salt, pepper, cheese, etc that may make this more pleasing to the soul 🙂 By now the pasta should be boiled – reserve one cup of the starchy water, drain the pasta, add the pasta right into the pan of sauce and about half of the reserved starchy water. Fold the pasta into the sauce, add a little more Parmigiano cheese and at the last minute add half of the chopped basil. If the sauce is too thick add a little more of the starchy water. Put the pasta in a serving dish, sprinkle more cheese and basil on top and I add a sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes to mine as well. Call the family to the table and enjoy the compliments. That’s the best part for me! 🙂
