Simple Red Pasta. . .

My husband requested pasta at least once a week. . .sometimes more. This week I went back to basic using a recipe my Italian friend gave me. We were expecting an Ohana dinner and was blessed with the presence of one of my step daughter so . . it was perfect crowd pleaser. Even my babies that are 3 and 18 months old loved the sauce. Very rare for one dinner menu in my house.

Ingredients:

Canned peeled whole tomatoes (italian brand)

5 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp olive oil

fresh basil leaves (chopped)

salt

sugar

eggplant (optional)

bulk italian sausage (optional)

choice of noodles

Directions:

Blend the whole tomatoes in a blender.

In a medium size pot put in the olive oil and garlic cloves on medium heat. Saute it till it browns and then lower the heat to add in the tomato sauce. Add salt, sugar, and basil leaves. I usually add more sugar than salt to my sauce. Taste it and if there is a bitter taste to it, add more sugar.

Slice up eggplant and salt on both sides. In a pan add little oil to cook up the eggplant. Cook it to add color. The eggplant will soak up all the oil you put in it and it will then release it in the sauce. . .so unless you want an olive oil red sauce. . .just put a drizzle of olive oil. As they cook throw it into the sauce. Once your done with the eggplant use the same pan and cook up the sausage then throw it into the sauce.

It is best to let your sauce simmer for several hours .. . I think that was my trick with this batch of sauce.

Tonight’s bread was a frozen bread and was cooked in the oven and it was crusty on outside and soft in the middle. My daughter loves only the middle so I cut it in half and took out the soft bread and then added sauce into the bread. . . my new invention of bread bowl.