What is your comfort food? What is the one thing that you crave when you need healing, whether that be emotional or physical healing? Mine is pasta, especially pasta with a rich and luxurious tomato sauce. Indeed, this incredibly easy tomato sauce is one of the tastiest and most comforting sauces I have discovered. Do you need some healing or comfort? Sometimes you just do, there might not be an explanation for it, but sometimes you just need to be kind to yourself when the world is not so kind to you. I certainly could use a food hug. This tomato sauce certainly made me feel better.
What is the key to the luxurious texture and depth of flavor? Butter! Butter does make everything better. My husband says using butter in cooking is somewhat like cheating, because whenever you add butter...the food is better. I agree. Everything is better with butter. But, sometimes you just need to cheat and treat yourself to butter! So, indulge yourself with this decadent sauce, that has literally 4 ingredients!
I added chicken, mozzarella and halved grape tomatoes to round out the pasta dish as a full meal. Serve this with a nice green salad, crusty bread, and I suppose a nice bold red wine would pair nicely...but it is 104 degrees outside...so we are having a crisp and COLD Chardonnay from the Carneros Valley, Cuvaison, one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.
Speaking of beautiful....we were in Malibu this past weekend for one of Bunker's dear friends from college. This friend is a purely kind person with a heart of gold, and I love that he found an incredibly sweet and thoughtful girl. Not only was the wedding venue breathtaking, but also the wedding vows, speeches, and overall aura took your breath away and brought a tear to each and every eye. Much love to Murph and Jackie.
Bunker taking a conference call for work at a Starbucks just off the beach!
View from lunch! I could live here very easily...
There are just no words...amazing...
At the wedding!
At the wedding...overlooking the ocean!
The happy couple!
Reception.
So....the temperature dropped just a few degrees once the sun went down...chilly!
Ingredients:
2 28 ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes in their juices
10 Tablespoons of butter
2 yellow onions peeled and cut in half
Salt to taste
3/4 pound of pasta (I used Penne pasta)
3 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups of grape tomatoes sliced in half lengthwise
1 fresh Mozzarella ball sliced into bite sized cubes (Mine was from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas)
Steps:
1. In a large cooking pot, combine the two cans of tomatoes, 10 tablespoons of butter and onions. (Do not slice the onions, really just cut each on in half and place in the pot, you will remove the onions later.)
2. Let this mixture simmer for 45 minutes, stirring often.
3. While the sauce is simmering away (and making your house smell so delicious!) cook the pasta (I used penne but you can really use whatever you prefer), cook the chicken breasts, cut the grape tomatoes and mozzarella and set aside.
4. Once the tomatoes have broken apart after 45 minutes, remove all of the onion pieces with a slotted spoon. I am keeping mine for something...not sure what...perhaps to top a pizza or something like that.
5. Puree the tomato sauce until it is to the texture that you prefer, I prefer very smooth, therefore, I pureed mine until it was very smooth, but you should do whatever you prefer.
6. Place the cooked pasta in a shallow pan and place over very low heat.
7. Add the sauce to the pasta.
8. Add the chopped chicken, tomatoes and mozzarella to the pasta and cook until heated through.
9. Enjoy with a crusty bread and a bright white wine in the summer, or a warm and rich red in the winter.
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