A few weeks ago, I was cooking for the kids and needed to create a red sauce for the pasta. I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to try creating my own recipe on the fly. Everyone loved it, so I'm going to share the secret ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 1 pint of home-canned or store-bought chunk tomatoes
- 1/2 stalk celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- A few tablespoons of finely chopped pancetta (you can substitute 2 strips of bacon)
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Secret Ingredients:
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Ok, the secret ingredients look more like the kind of things that belong in a pumpkin pie, but I swear these are an awesome addition to pasta sauce.
The inspiration for this was a meal I had at a local Mediterranean restaurant. The restaurant adds some nutmeg to their moussaka and I liked the dish so much that I decided to add both nutmeg and cinnamon to my red sauce to see what would happen. I found that these two spices add a wonderfully warm flavor that people will love but they will be unable to identify the secret ingredients.
Here's how to prepare the sauce. Give it a try. I think you'll like it.
Preparation:
- Finely chop the pancetta/bacon, celery, and garlic.
- Add the pancetta to a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the bacon is cooked and some of the fat is left in the bottom of the pan.
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil and the celery. Cook till the celery is soft and translucent.
- Now add the garlic and cook for a minute, but be careful not to burn it.
- Add the canned tomatoes (including the juice) and cook for about 20 minutes. Home canned tomatoes contain lots of water, if you are using store-bought, you may need to add some water or a little white wine to keep the sauce from burning.
- Add the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook over a medium to low heat for 20 minutes to allow all the flavors to blend.
- Serve over a pasta shape of your choice.
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