What a Treat!

So, Dan and I had some friends over Tuesday night for dinner. Over the weekend we had decided we'd try to make a pasta sauce from scratch and serve it with pasta and meatballs. So, Tuesday we headed to the grocery store to get our ingredients, along with what we needed to make an apple crisp dessert I'd picked out of the same Rachel Ray Magazine.

Well, things started out great! Dan worked on the pasta and I prepared the dessert so it would be ready to go into the oven when dinner was served. The pasta sauce was incredibly simple and needed to simmer in all its glory for 45 minutes. Instead of also making the meatballs from scratch, we decided to buy them pre-made which was a blessing considering we were already using most of our pots and pans!

Once Chris and Angela arrived, dinner was about ready. The noodles, sauce and meatballs were merged and served! First we warned them we'd never made this dish before, that they were our Guinea pigs, but they didn't seem to mind. In fact, once everyone had dug in, Angela said, "Chris must like it, we haven't heard from him in a few minutes!" And boy, was it delicious! It was like an explosion of flavor in our mouths! We did it! With so many successes, it's a wonder we don't cook more new things!



Here's the recipe!

"Basil Tomato SauceAnna Boiardi" From Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2008
SERVES 6 Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 1 hr




1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 onions, chopped (1 1/3 cup)
3 teaspoons salt
Two 28-ounce cans whole peeled san marzano tomatoes, pureed with their juices
7 leaves fresh basil



Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, season with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and the basil and bring to a simmer over high heat. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes more.

Happy Cooking!

The Arthurs