Culinary Adventures: Somewhat Experimental Tomato Pasta Sauce

On Friday, I decided to have gluten-free pasta for lunch, only to realize that the closest thing I had to pasta sauce was tomato paste.  Being the shamelessly lazy person that I am, I decided to make do with what I had instead of going to the grocery store.  Accordingly, I googled "how to make pasta sauce from tomato paste," and found this recipe for Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce from taste.com.au

Behold the wonders of the internet: Americans who are too lazy to go buy pasta sauce can learn from Australians how to cook Italian food.

I started by chopping up a small onion, and cooked it in olive oil over low heat, just as the recipe instructed me to do. The recipe actually also called for a garlic clove to cook with the onion.  I was using garlic powder instead....and I forgot to put it in.

Cooking the onions: this was the least experimental phase of the process.

Next, I was supposed to add four more ingredients to the onions: 1/2 cup of water, 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs, a 410g can of crushed tomatoes, 2 teaspoons tomato paste.  

At first, I followed the recipe, adding half a cup of water, and one teaspoon of McCormick's Italian Seasoning, just as instructed.  Next I added a teaspoon of garlic powder (because I hadn't added any to the onions), and a pinch of salt (because any recipe with tomatoes needs salt, right?).

Then, I started to get creative, and the recipe took more of an experimental turn.  

I didn't have a can of crushed tomatoes, so substituted three fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped up.  And as for the 2 teaspoons of tomato paste...well, tomato paste comes in 6 oz cans.  And it's annoying to have an open can of something.  So....I kinda just....poured the whole thing in.

All of the ingredients in the pot.  The recipe had definitely taken on an experimental character by this point.

The last step in the (actual) recipe was to simmer the sauce for 25 minutes until thickened. If I had taken the time to crush the tomatoes before throwing them into the pot, that might have worked for me.  As I had failed to follow the path of wisdom in this manner, I decided to bring it my concoction up to a boil, all the while mashing the chunks of the tomatoes with my cooking spoon.  The result was still a little chunky, but definitely more sauce-like than previously.

Experimental sauce, post boil.

In an attempt to achieve a smoother texture, I covered the concoction, let it simmer, and checked it every few minutes.

The faithful Beatrice waited with me during the final final phase of the experiment.  She kindly offered to taste test the concoction several times, but I refused her because onions and garlic are not good for puppy dogs.

This took....well, I'm not exactly sure how long.  45 minutes, maybe?   but I didn't really pay attention to how much time was passing.

Experimental sauce, post simmer.

And now for the moment of truth: how did it taste?

Reasonably good! It wasn't as smooth as it could be, but it was still definitely a sauce. I mixed it with gluten free penne, and had it for lunch with that powdery stuff people claim is Parmesan cheese. DH even ate my leftovers for dinner.

Experimental sauce + gluten free pasta = lunch for the hedgehog!

The flavor of the sauce was quite strong, probably because I simmered it for so long.  It was mostly good, but I kept thinking that it tasted a little metallic, as if being canned had influenced the flavor of the tomato paste. (Does that even make any sense?) The metallic flavor overshadowed the flavor of the fresh tomatoes, which was really a shame not only because fresh tomatoes are delicious, but also because, in my experience, the flavor of fresh ingredients is the best way to camouflage sub-par cooking skills (or reckless experimentation).  

If I had crushed the tomatoes before adding them to the sauce, and/or added more water to balance out the somewhat excessive amount of tomato paste that I used, it probably would have made quite a bit of difference.

I would like to take this moment to acknowledge that it probably would have taken less effort to go to the grocery store and buy some pasta sauce.  Being lazy is quite a lot of work, you know, and therefore not for the faint of heart.

Also, if anyone knows the secret of making lovely tomato sauce, but feel free to share in the comments below.

Sweet Beatrice!