Saturday, August 25, 2007

August 22, 2007: Heidi's hasty, tasty tomato sauce

After more than two weeks of subsisting on meals prepared by cafes and caterers, I was looking forward to some simple, nourishing home-cooked food. Heidi (of 101 Cookbooks) couldn't have shared her favourite tomato sauce recipe at a more opportune time. It's a simple, very quickly prepared mix with a canned crushed tomato base, the requisite olive oil and garlic, then some much-needed zing from dried chilli and lemon zest. Following Heidi's recommendation further we served this with ricotta and spinach tortellini, then for some extra vege action baked portabello mushrooms with quick brush of balsamic vinegar. This was just the hint of summer I needed to put a spring in my step!

Hasty, tasty tomato sauce

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 x 400g cans crushed tomatoes
grated rind of one lemon

Stir together the olive oil, chilli, salt and garlic in a saucepan without heat. Then heat the saucepan up to medium-high, giving the mixture less than a minute to saute. Add the tomatoes and gently simmer the sauce for just a few minutes. Take it off the heat, adjust the salt to taste, then stir in the lemon rind, perhaps reserving some as a garnish.

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