Pasta Sauce Or Red sauce

Pasta sauce or Red sauce

I love pasta, penne with red (tomato) sauce is my most favorite dish. Here is how I make my pasta sauce.

Ingredients (serves 3)
2 medium sized red onions, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (mince garlic and ginger together)
8 medium ripe tomatoes
Spice mix (Oregano, basil, Italian seasoning)
Salt, black pepper
Red chilly powder (if you want to make sauce hotter)
Cream (optional)
cheese (optional)
meat (optional)
Other veggies (optional)

Method:
I like to blanch tomatoes before making puree, so that it becomes easy to take out their skin and preserve bright red color and tangy taste. Take a big pan for tomatoes and fill it with water, bring it to boil. Once tomato skin starts loosing up, turn off the heat. Throw away water and keep tomatoes aside to cool off uptil they become warm. Take out their skins, seeds, stems. Process tomatoes to make fine puree, and keep
aside.

Finished Sauce (camera flash messed with color of sauce :( )

I usually process onions and carrot in food processor for fine chopping. So sauce becomes more consistent.
Take a heavy bottom saucepan and saute ginger-garlic paste, add in chopped onions and carrot. Saute them nicely till they become transparent.  If you are using veggies/meat then saute them after onions and carrots.   Add in tomato puree, add about half cup of water and saute for a while. If you are using meat in sauce then add upto one cup of water. Add spice mix, salt and pepper, add red chilly powder if you wish to make hotter. Give mixture a nice stir and bring mixture to boil. After boil reduce heat and cook through on low flame for about 10-15 minutes with lid on. If you have added meat to sauce then you may need to cook for about half hour or till meat cooks through (depending upon meat used). Take out lid and reduce sauce further depending on consistency of your choice. I prefer to reduce added water and that defines consistency for sauce.

Few people prefer to add cream/cheese, but its optional. There is your sauce ready. Enjoy it over your pasta, can be used in lasagna as well.

Pasta with red sauce

I must admit pasta was pretty late discovery for me. I love all kind of pasta, be it with white sauce or tomato sauce or any other sauce I love to eat it. Here is my try for pasta with red sauce. I don’t claim it to be authentic pasta recipe, I have made my own changes to it.  This recipe serves 2 people.

Ingredients:

-         - Pasta of your choice (I prefer penne).

-         - Medium size red tomatoes 8-10 nos.

-         -1tbsp. Minced ginger.

-         -1 tbsp. Minced garlic.

-          -½ cup finely chopped red onion.

-          -2 finely chopped green chillies.

-          -1/4^th cup fresh coriander/parsley finely chopped.

-          -1tsp. Oregano.

-          -1 tsp. basil.

-          -1 tsp. rosemary.

-          -1 tsp. sugar (preferably white).

-          -1tbsp tomato ketchup.

-          -Salt to taste.

-          -1 tsp. vegetable oil

Prepare pasta:

-         - Boil up 1 liter of water in a big woke, add a tbsp. of salt to it.

-         - It should take about 10-12 minutes for pasta to be cooked.

-         - Drain water and then sprinkle little bit oil to prevent pasta from sticking to each other.

Prepare sauce:

-         - Take woke and put all tomatoes in, fill in water until all tomatoes are submerged.

-         - Bring water to boil and turn off flame when tomatoes skin separates.  Let it cool down

-         - Peel of tomato skin and get rid of stem and seeds and prepare smooth paste.

-         - Take a frying pan and add vegetable oil, ginger-garlic and sauté for a minute or 2.

-         - Now add finely chopped onion and sauté till they are translucent.

-         - Now add tomato paste and bring it to simmer

-         - Now add oregano, basil, rosemary, sugar, tomato ketchup, salt and give it a nice stir.

-         - If sauce becomes too thick, add little water and simmer for a while, turn off flame.

Serve:

Add pasta to prepared sauce in frying pan and sauté, put lid on and let it steam for couple of minutes. Take a portion of pasta along with sauce in bowl, put some shredded cheese on top and serve hot. Enjoy while its hot :)