After ten days on the road (with a quick 12-hour stop at home in the middle), it is good to be home again. Don’t get me wrong, the holiday weekend exploring New Brunswick was wonderful. I also enjoyed a week of business travel in Manhattan, but being home is refreshing. I don’t think we could have planned our return better, as our first full day at home is Tapas Monday. As I was thinking about tonight’s menu I realized that I still had a recipe from a previous Monday to share.
The menu from two weeks ago was filled with new recipes that were quite popular. Our dinner consisted of Summer Squash & Zucchini Bruschetta, meatballs with Red Wine Tomato Sauce, and Ultimate Figs. Although I wanted some sort of homemade sauce to accompany the meatballs, I didn’t have a lot of time to give to chopping ingredients and keeping an eye on it. I decided to try a different spin on it.
If you don’t count the salt and pepper, only four ingredients were required to make this sauce. Although it didn’t have the texture of a marinara, used as a dipping sauce for meatballs, it was perfect. The flavor of tomatoes and red wine were balanced well, and the sauce was thick enough to give a decent coating to the meatballs. Although it is a simple recipe, if you can make it early in the day, allowing it to simmer for a few hours will help the flavors meld together.
- 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
- 2/3 cup red wine
- 1 Tb. dried basil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- salt & pepper
- Combine the first four ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat.
- Allow to simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. If possible, simmer for an additional hour or two.
