Last night I made my family’s favourite dinner. It was a celebration because we just sold our house at auction earlier in the day and the two hours it takes to prepare, simmer and reduce the pasta sauce didn’t seem like such a long wait with a celebratory glass of champagne in my hand.
Our local area is blessed with a number of excellent fruit and vegetable stores. From large market style stores, to pile them high sell them cheap tucked away down an alley way style. We can always find exactly what we are looking for so shopping for fresh ingredients is a real pleasure.
The beautiful piquant sauce for this pasta requires at least 2.5kg of tomatoes. I prefer to use ripe roma tomatoes. They have a wonderful flavor and are less watery than other types so reduce faster. I don’t worry about peeling the skin off. By using the whole tomato you retain all the vital nutrients and get maximum health benefits. Most of the flavonols are actually in the tomato skin. Cut the tomatoes in half and blend to a pulp before using.
In a very large saucepan heat a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil and add about four heaped teaspoons of chopped garlic. Chop two large onions in the blender and cook until translucent, then add about 150g of tomato paste. Add the tomato pulp, about three teaspoons of dried basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer with the lid off until the sauce reduces and the liquid has gone. This will take between one to two hours depending on the type of tomatoes.
Just at the end of the cooking process throw in a bunch of roughly chopped basil and about 150g of cubed organic vegetarian mozzarella. Check the ingredients to make sure that there is no animal rennet in the cheese. Rennet is made from an enzyme taken from the stomach of calves, sheep and goats and is definitely not vegetarian. They are many great vegetarian cheeses widely available.
Mix the tomato sauce through cooked rigatoni pasta, serve and add some torn basil leaves and grated parmesan to the top if desired. Extra basil in a bowl on the table always goes down well with us. But then we really love the stuff!
Initially it appears that you are making a huge quantity of tomato sauce but it reduces down to feed 4 to 6 people comfortably. In our house leftovers always get eaten the very next day so there is never any waste.
The rich intense and slightly tart flavor of the reduced tomatoes melds delightfully with the pungent basil and the melted mozzarella adds a wonderful gooey texture and creamy taste. Enjoy!
Tomato sauce at start of cooking process
Tomato sauce after reducing for over one hour
Tomato, basil and mozarella rigatoni
And remember that genuine Parmesan is rarely vegetarian… so look out for the occasional ones that are (usually not actually made in Italy!)
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