In the spirit of my excitement over all the low calorie pasta recipes I’ve been making, here is a delicious gourmet pasta sauce recipe that is fresh, healthy and oh so yummy!
This homemade pasta sauce sure beats the stuff from a jar and will “wow” your dinner guests. It was so tasty, I couldn’t stop eating it when I was cooking!!
The sauce yields lots of heart healthy fiber, antioxidants and lycopene (which is one of the most potent antioxidants and is being investigated as a potential agent for theprevention of cancers, including prostate cancer)
Melted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1/4 c. fresh minced garlic
- 4 oz. *soffrito (or substitute a finely minced mix of 2 parts red onion to 1 part carrot and 1 part celery)
- 3 27 oz. cans cherry tomatoes (or substitute 4 pints fresh cherry tomatoes and 32 oz. can of crushed tomatoes)
- 1/2 bunch basil
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- Salt, pepper, sugar, and chili flakes to taste
- 2 oz. extra virgin olive oil
- * In Italian cuisine soffrito is a sautéed mixture of chopped onions, celery, carrots, and seasonings
Directions:
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently sauté the garlic and soffrito in oil.
- Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan. Allow the mixture to gently stew for at least three hours over low heat.
- Stir periodically. After the second hour, tie herbs together so they can be removed later and add to the pan.
- When at the preferred consistency, add salt, sugar, pepper, and chili flakes to your liking.
- Remove the herbs. (For lasagna or pasta, the sauce should be thinner. For pizza or dipping sauce, it should be thicker.)
- Remove mixture from heat and stir in olive oil.
- Freeze, or refrigerate up to four days.
Serving Size = 1/2 cup
2 Weight Watchers Points per serving (2 WW Points)
2 Comments
while the sauce was very sweet, the bitterness from skins and especially seeds was also quite pronounced. And suggestions for how to counter this?
You could try de-seeding the tomatoes before adding them into the recipe. It's a painstaking task, but if the flavor of the tomato skin really bothers you, it may be worth it. You could also try using a different type of tomato….I'd recommend a Roma Tomato. It won't change the WW Points value and it's easier to peel if you want to de-skin your tomatoes. Though it's not quite the exact same flavor as the cherry tomatoes. Hope that helps!