Recipe Trial: Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter--
Just FYI, I might be a wee bit spammy just now.
So a week or so ago, nieninque121 mentioned to me that she had run into a simple tomato sauce recipe that's been going around the internet that is supposed to be absolutely superb, and only requires four ingredients: tomatoes, butter, onions and salt. Well, that sounded like something I'd run into a little while back, and so we conferred and found out we'd stumbled on two (slightly) different versions of the same sauce: Smitten Kitchen: Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter.
We agreed to give it a stab individually and confer again after. ^_^ Well, she gave it a try a few days ago, and pronounced it not spectacular, but delicious, and today was my day. I followed the recipe pretty closely, the only substitutions being: I am not buying a brick of unsalted butter when I don't have the room to bake or do anything else that would use up the rest of it, so I omitted the salt and used some of the salted butter I already have; I threw in four cloves of garlic I had sitting around and didn't have a use for; and I used two small halved onions rather than one medium. Oh, and the tomatoes weren't San Marzano, but I doubt I'm going to stumble on a wide selection of them just now.
Verdict: It's very good, but not spectacular. It was quite a nice tomatoey flavour, the butter adding a lovely smoothness to it you wouldn't really expect. It's definitely a base sauce in my book, and while I'd certainly make it again, I'd seriously consider adding some other things to it. The garlic cloves didn't show up in the flavour at all, so next time I'd add more, or crush or dice them. I'd also likely try halving the butter and substituting some olive oil to cut down on the fat content while retaining the buttery flavour. If I had a reason to buy a nice bottle of red wine (or access to one), I'd give it a glug or two as well.
I ate it with parmesan sprinkled on top, although I think that would've been even nicer if I could find a good quality, strong parm here. So far, no dice.
I would totally make it again, fiddling with it a bit more, but not too much, because it truly was an incredibly easy sauce to make. Amazingly easy. I'm planning to get a pizza base so I can use the leftovers (including the onion and garlic) as a pizza sauce, and then... I'm not sure what. We'll have to see, because I still have too much left over for just that.
I think it'd do best served (with pasta) with a really nice, crusty garlic bread, or maybe a rustic sourdough, and a fresh green salad.
...And that's probably as creative recipe-wise as I'm likely to get in the next few months. *snort*
So a week or so ago, nieninque121 mentioned to me that she had run into a simple tomato sauce recipe that's been going around the internet that is supposed to be absolutely superb, and only requires four ingredients: tomatoes, butter, onions and salt. Well, that sounded like something I'd run into a little while back, and so we conferred and found out we'd stumbled on two (slightly) different versions of the same sauce: Smitten Kitchen: Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter.
We agreed to give it a stab individually and confer again after. ^_^ Well, she gave it a try a few days ago, and pronounced it not spectacular, but delicious, and today was my day. I followed the recipe pretty closely, the only substitutions being: I am not buying a brick of unsalted butter when I don't have the room to bake or do anything else that would use up the rest of it, so I omitted the salt and used some of the salted butter I already have; I threw in four cloves of garlic I had sitting around and didn't have a use for; and I used two small halved onions rather than one medium. Oh, and the tomatoes weren't San Marzano, but I doubt I'm going to stumble on a wide selection of them just now.
Verdict: It's very good, but not spectacular. It was quite a nice tomatoey flavour, the butter adding a lovely smoothness to it you wouldn't really expect. It's definitely a base sauce in my book, and while I'd certainly make it again, I'd seriously consider adding some other things to it. The garlic cloves didn't show up in the flavour at all, so next time I'd add more, or crush or dice them. I'd also likely try halving the butter and substituting some olive oil to cut down on the fat content while retaining the buttery flavour. If I had a reason to buy a nice bottle of red wine (or access to one), I'd give it a glug or two as well.
I ate it with parmesan sprinkled on top, although I think that would've been even nicer if I could find a good quality, strong parm here. So far, no dice.
I would totally make it again, fiddling with it a bit more, but not too much, because it truly was an incredibly easy sauce to make. Amazingly easy. I'm planning to get a pizza base so I can use the leftovers (including the onion and garlic) as a pizza sauce, and then... I'm not sure what. We'll have to see, because I still have too much left over for just that.
I think it'd do best served (with pasta) with a really nice, crusty garlic bread, or maybe a rustic sourdough, and a fresh green salad.
...And that's probably as creative recipe-wise as I'm likely to get in the next few months. *snort*