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 the
prevention of cancers, including prostate cancer)
Melted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
Makes 3 quarts
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!