Little Cherry started like this…
giving us the odd little ‘mater every day or so.
Today our cup overfloweth…
This was Cherry’s contribution today alone. Needless to say, I love Cherry. A lot.
She did the same thing a few days ago…that whole “more than we know what to do with” thing.
Add those to what Early Girl produced last week, and a few clippings from my basil-on-steroids bush and you got yo’self the makings for some genu-wine, devine homemade pasta sauwce. Yeehaaaw.
So I did it. And I climbed into bed last night pretty stinking chuffed with myself.
I had just made pasta sauce with the “fruit” of our garden – finally feeling comfortable enough in the kitchen to improvise on a recipe {thyme…everything tastes good with thyme! Oh! And garlic…l-o-t-s of garlic!} – bagged it, labeled them and plopped ‘em in the freezer. For the first time. Ever. Amen.
I believe my exact words to my husband before I passed out were “move over Betty Crocker…”. I don’t recall the rest of my cocky proclamation as it was past 1:00am and my eyes were only open long enough to aid my staggering into bed. The sweet sense of success must have lingered until morning as I made sure to grab a rock-hard baggie from the freezer just long enough to snap a shot of it as soon as I realized I’d forgotten to take one {just because I apparently think you need proof}.
For someone who considered herself a city girl, I’m soaking up every ounce of our country lifestyle…and loving it!
Ingredients & Directions:
- 3 tbs. of butter
- 6-8 large tomatoes {I used less and threw in 2 dozen cherry tomatoes for a touch of sweetness…and to use what we have}, diced
- 3/4 cup of chopped fresh basil {I used citrus & liquorices basil}
- 2 tsp. of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp. of fennel
- 1 jalapeño, finely sliced
- 2 tbs. of brown sugar
- 2-3 tbs. of all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup of water
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat; cook the tomatoes in the melted butter until they start to fall apart {6-8 minutes}.
Add the basil, olive oil, fennel, jalapeño, salt, pepper and brown sugar.
Slowly stir the flour into mixture and cook until it begins to thicken {I used a sifter to avoid clumps}. Stir the water through mixture, whisking to break up any clumps of flour.
Mix the garlic into the sauce and simmer another 5 minutes.
Thin with water, or thicken with flour, depending on desired consistency.
Serve hot over pasta, or cool and freeze.
Voila! You get to slip into bed feeling like Betty Crocker {which is unusual to think about actually, considering she wasn’t known for how she slipped into bed}.
But you know. Whatever.
