We have monthly dinners with a group of really good friends, and we have to make everything from scratch. It’s no joke, I even got in trouble once for bringing store made baklava to accompany my homemade Kunufe’ for mediterranean night.
This month we did Italian food and it was delicious. As I was planning what I was going to make the week of, I ended up having pasta almost all week because I really put myself into the character of an Italian Grandmother. I could smell the aromas of garlic, bread rising, and pasta dough kneading. I could hear myself talking a couple octaves higher than the soft spoken volumes I was used to.
A Simple and delicious dish we loved was a tomato cream sauce. You can serve over gnocchi (what we did) or regular pasta. (There’s a photo of the “dish” down below).
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
- 3/4 teaspoon white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon butter
Directions
- In a saucepan, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and continue to boil 5 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in whipping cream and butter. Reduce heat and simmer 5 more minutes.
