As much as I pride myself on being Irish, their culinary
masterpieces do not compare to the Italian’s. So as I prepare to marry an
Italian man, I am starting to take my Italian cooking skills up a notch.
On yet again another snow day, I decide that there is no better
time than now to put a big pot of garlicky, pasta sauce on the stove. I
immediately started daydreaming that I was back in Italy with a bottle of
Chianti and a big bowl of pasta in front of me.
… and then I woke up and was back in New Jersey with a foot of snow
outside my window. But at least the house still smelled good!
This is a foolproof recipe that is a mix of
recipes I’ve seen on the Internet combined with family recipes. As an ode to my Irish
grandmother, who's pasta sauce is the only kind my grandfather will eat, I will call this recipe “Roasted
Garlic Red Lead”. If you find yourself
with a few hours to kill, and want fill up a few mason jars of pasta sauce to
give to your family (or just save for later), then this is the recipe for you!
Roasted Garlic Red Lead
1 and ½ quarts (2 quart sized mason jars filled ¾ of the
way)
2 (28-ounce) cans of San Marzano tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
1 can tomato paste
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce
Pinch of crushed red pepper
Pinch of sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 heads of roasted garlic
- In a medium sized sauce pot, sauté the onion in the olive oil until soft and golden, 4 to 6 minutes.
- Add minced garlic and stir for 1 minute.
- Add the tomato pasta, salt, balsamic vinegar, hot sauce, and seasonings, and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the cans of San Marzano tomatoes, stirring well to combine, then bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the roasted garlic, squishing the cloves from the peels. Try to break apart some of the cloves with your wooden spoon.
- Continue to simmer for 30-45 minutes until the flavors have come together.
- If you want a smoother sauce, mix with an Immersion blender for a few pulses to break up some of the tomato and garlic chunks.