Quick Tomato Sauce #Recipe @PegCochran

This is a great quick and light tomato sauce.  I used it on homemade pizza but it would be just as good over pasta or over chicken or fish.  Fresh tomatoes are so dicey (pun intended) this time of year so I adapted the recipe to use canned tomatoes.  The quality was still excellent. I recommend San Marzano tomatoes if you can get them. I used the Cento brand.

Since I’m doing Weight Watchers, I cut the oil back in this recipe to 1 TBSP and it didn’t suffer a bit.  However if you aren’t dieting, go ahead and use the full 3 TBSP.  

3 Tbsp olive oil
¹⁄₂ cup chopped onion
 2 Tbsp minced garlic
 2 pounds ripe, cored and diced fresh tomatoes or 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp kosher salt
¹⁄₂ cup fresh, chopped basil
Pinch sugar

Combine oil, onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 1 minute. 

FRESH TOMATOES

Add tomatoes and their juices, tomato paste, salt and sugar and sauté until tomatoes begin to soften, about 1 minute. 

Cover pan, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until sauce consistency, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in basil. 

CANNED TOMATOES

Add tomatoes and juice, tomato paste and salt and pinch of sugar and simmer slowly, breaking up tomatoes with a spoon.  Continue to cook until tomatoes break down and become sauce consistency—approximately 30 to 45 minutes.  Remove from heat and add basil.

Canned tomatoes

 

 

 

The finished pizza

 

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

An intrepid 1930s Manhattan socialite uncovers deadly secrets during an assignment to the Hamptons in this riveting historical cozy mystery for readers of Victoria Thompson, Anne Perry, and Rhys Bowen.

Westhampton, 1938. To the dismay of her well-to-do family, Elizabeth “Biz” Adams is quickly establishing herself as a seasoned photographer over at the Daily Trumpet. Growing more confident in her decision to pursue a career, Elizabeth is thrilled when she and her reporter sidekick, Ralph Kaminsky, are sent to Long Island to cover the story of a young maid found dead in one of the glamourous summer homes in the devastating aftermath of the Great New England Hurricane—also known as the Long Island Express.

At first it’s assumed that the young woman was caught in the terrible storm, but when a suspicious wound is found on the side of her head, the police suspect murder. The maid’s death becomes even more tragic when it’s discovered she was pregnant, and with Elizabeth and Kaminsky at the scene of the crime, the Daily Trumpet scoops all the other papers in town.

The young woman’s boyfriend emerges as the likeliest suspect. But as Elizabeth follows the story, she begins to wonder whether someone in the household of the maid’s employers might be responsible—someone who’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth about the baby’s paternity hidden.