Our go-to quick weeknight dinner is often pasta.  (I mean, who doesn’t like pasta??) I’ve never been a ‘just open the jar’ pasta sauce kind of girl.  I like to cook and I eye the ingredients in premade jarred sauce with suspicion.  But sometimes you need something that doesn’t require much effort or a trip to the grocery store!  This sauce is a favorite in our house. – simple and fresh tasting and around 30 minutes from “oh, I guess we should make dinner”, to food on the table. And most of it is down time allowing for setting a pretty table and throwing together a salad.  If you DO plan ahead, you might even put together THIS easy peasy fantastic homemade rustic bread to go with it!

This is a simple red sauce that got named Sparky Sauce in our house because the “recipe” such as it is, came out of a Nicholas Sparks  novel I was reading where the character made her grandmother’s special pasta sauce….they cooked it for hours so the story line could carry on, but I’ve found it doesn’t really need that long!

Sparky Sauce

Ingredients

1 can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes*

1 sweet onion peeled and cut into chunks

A handful of fresh basil leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

editors note: the original recipe also adds 4 Tbsp of butter, I eliminated it for a healthier version of this and don’t really miss it, but if you want to add it, it does add a richness to the sauce.

Directions

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat until onion is tender (30-45 minutes).  Puree right in the pan using a stick blender and add fresh ground salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over your favorite pasta (makes enough for about 1 lb of pasta).  Top with freshly grated high quality parmesan* cheese. 

Essential tools (click on image for link):

NOTE:  *We try to keep a few cans of San Marzano tomatoes in the pantry, and we almost always have a hunk of fresh Parmegiano Reggiano in the fridge. PLEASE, I beg you, don’t buy the green can of cheeselike foodlike substance.  High quality ingredients make for a quick gourmet meal!  THIS post lists our favorite lazy gourmet pantry staples.

Enjoy!

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