Monday, February 7, 2011 Headbanging Sauce

(Originally posted on The Headbanging Hostess Facebook Page.)

I must preface this by saying this is not "Italian" sauce...meaning my husband doesn't make it this way. It's good sauce, but not what anyone's Nonni made.

Start with the oven at 425. I used half a large onion, 4 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 1 red pepper. Spray lightly with oil and roast until they start to get good color. The pepper can turn black if you want because you're taking off the skin. You can also do garlic, I didn't use it yesterday. My husband missed it, but I didn't. (He still ate two servings!) Wrap the garlic cloves in foil to roast.

Take them out of the oven when they look done, about 25 minutes, not too dark, fork tender. Put the pepper in a bowl and cover it with plastic, the steam will make it easier to remove the skin.

Now, when I was making the sauce I also had a pot of chicken stock going. A good amount of the flavor came from the stock, so you should consider making stock at the same time. Or you can buy stock and "fortify" it with some more veggies on the stovetop. Onion, carrots, celery. Mine had sweet potato, apples, rosemary, zucchini, peppers. The longer a stock cooks and reduces the better it's going to taste.

So when I emptied two cans of tomato sauce into a big spaghetti pot I used the stock to rinse all the tomato out of the cans. Don't worry about the sauce getting too thin at this point, as it cooks it will thicken. Throw all the roasted veggies in the sauce, the skinless pepper, the onion, carrots and celery. Keep it at a low heat and cover with foil, tomato sauce likes to disperse itself around the entire kitchen.

As Emeril would say, let it get happy for a bit. Then bust out your immersion blender and puree the whole lot. Add more stock to get the consistency you need/desire.

I really didn't add a lot of salt and pepper. I did use dried basil and oregano, but not in great amounts. The flavor of the roasted vegetables really shines through. This is a great way to sneak veggies into your diet. Or your kids diet :)

Rock on! \m/

-HH

Click here for an awesome Valentine's Day rantipe/foodicle in this months Alternative Control!