(a) Tomatoes growing in abundance
(b) Two cranky kids missing their grandparents
(c) and an acute shortage of time for me
Have I told you I am so messed up right now that the one day I mange to reach the gym I arrive there in my flip-flops ?
Have I told you that no one thinks I am a super mom, not my mom, not the husband's mom, not the kid's mom, not the husband's mom...ok I repeat.
If I have how did you ever expect that you will see step-by-step pics of food getting cooked here.
Don't you think your expectations are lofty, your aspirations are sky high and you might actually do good if you write the GMAT than browse through my page ?
So the bottom line is there is no Step-by Step pic, there are few steps, all others are missing.
And really this is a very simple recipe, not even a recipe actually, tomatoes thrown together to be blended and roasted before they are thrown together and sun-dried tomatoes and basil added before they are blended and red ripe juicy tomatoes picked from my very own tiny veggie patch before they are roasted. You get the drift ? Now go ahead and make it.
This is a beautiful sauce that you can toss your pasta in. My girls adore it and that is something. I make the pasta like this, you do your own way. And please do remember I use my small toaster oven for such things in small quantity, so my temp settings might be different, be careful about your own oven settings.
Soak about 1 cup of coarsely chopped sun dried tomatoes in hot water for 30 minutes or more till it softens
Chop & Roast two plump juicy red tomatoes and 5 cloves of garlic drizzled liberally with olive oil and generously dusted with garlic pepper powder and salt till the tomatoes are well roasted. Be careful, do not burn them. In my toaster oven, I had the temp at 400F and it took me about 30-35 minutes.
Cool and in a blender add
roasted tomatoes with garlic, oil and everything,
sun dried tomatoes that are now softened
Blend to make a paste
Add some fresh basil. Blend with above to make a fragrant Tomato Basil Paste.
If the tomatoes are not sweet, and you think the paste is a bit tart for your paste, add a little sugar when you are using it.
Cool and store in the refrigerator. Till date I have kept such pate for 7-10 days. While tossing Pasta make the sauce more liquid by adding pasta water like here or add some olive oil.