Food lover I am through and through, but my approach to cooking meals depends entirely on who is eating. My feeling towards food, but particularly meals, is that it should be shared and enjoyed together with others. For me, there's a difference between enjoying treats and enjoying a meal in that enjoying treats can be social but it can be also a wonderfully private indulgence (mmm, ice cream). Enjoying meals means friendships and family, be it big lasagna lovingly assembled over 3 days or pizza ordered in. If I am the lone eater, I tend to put minimal effort into my meals. Cue Easy Tomato Sauce.
I discovered this recipe via Smitten Kitchen and oh mama, I'm so glad I did. I've adapted it to my tastes and out of curiosity, I tracked the exact time it took to make this.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pot. Total time elapsed: 5 seconds.
Peel and halve 2 onions and add to the pot. Total time elapsed: 0:02.
Add two 28oz cans of San Marzano tomatoes, removing the guts connected to the stem end. Why? Because my Italian friend Christine says so. Total time elapsed: 0:10.
Simmer on medium heat stirring occasionally. You can also respond to emails, catch up on celebrity gossip and/or put away clean laundry. Or just enjoy the crazy good smell saturating your kitchen. Total time elapsed: 0:45.
This is where my adaptation gets personal. The Korean in me cannot simply throw away those smooth buttery onions so I put an immersion blender to the pot. Total time elapsed: 0:47.
I went slightly overboard with the blending this time but I don't worry. Salt to taste.
I let this cool a bit then ladle it into a muffin pan and stick the pan in the freezer. The day after, I'll release the pucks and I have great tomato sauce ready to go for my staple meals including Tomato Rice (another post for another day), tomato soup or eggs poached in tomato sauce.
Winner winner, easy dinner.
Winner winner, easy dinner.
