Tomato surprise

With the old man at sea I've been left to fend for myself. This is especially intimidating when it comes to meal time! I'm not much of a cook, or a great baker; I think I've found the key though. Cooking for one! He always wants me to cook for him, but I get all nervous and shy and can never commit fully to an extravagant meal. I think the main deterrent is the idea that what I'm digging he might not be, in addition to never having prepared a really super yummy meal, ever.

I think it's all going to change for the better though. I picked up Judith Jones' The Pleasure of Cooking for One at Chapters and after reading it a lightbulb went of. Something just clicked. I'm not afraid to eat crappy food; over cooked pasta, tough chicken. I'm not afraid to choke down a meal gone wrong. And so I become fearless in the kitchen! My first attempt at following but not following a recipe was on a simple spaghetti with homemade tomato and garlic sauce.

I found the recipe at Use Real Butter, the Ship's Captain's Tomato Garlic Sauce is a really simple and kinda fun recipe. I've never blanched anything before, and found it really funny to be peeling tomatoes and scooping out the guts! Maybe because it was my first time, maybe I was just really enjoying the pleasures of cooking - for me! Anyhow, I had a really great time and that led to me making bread later on that night!!!!!! That's another story though.

Simple and (kind of) Quick Tomato and Garlic Sauce (what I used)

Ripe vine tomatoes (I used about 10)

Cloves of garlic (I used 6, but could have used one or two more)

One shallot

Olive oil (not too much, i did three tablespoons but probably should have only used 1.5 or 2, depends on how much your cooking)

Herbs (I used a tiny bit of dried oregano, fresh and dry rosemary sprigs, a bay leaf and fresh parsley as a garnish)

Tomato paste

S & P and sugar (to taste)

Basically you blanche the tomatoes in boiled water, peel em, halve em and gut em. Place the guts in a strainer (or sieve) over a bowl and put aside for later. Dice up what's left of the tomatoes, mince up the garlic cloves and chop up the shallot. Heat the olive oil in a pan (deep enough to hold your amount of sauce) and add garlic and sizzle until you can smell that garlic-y goodness, toss in the shallot and let cook together for a minute or two. Add the diced tomatoes and the bay leaf then let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes start to breakdown. Half way through you can toss in them herbs. Once the tomatoes start to breakdown you can add the juices only, that you collected from the tomato guts along with a little bit of tomato paste. Simmer all this until it begins to look like delicious tomato sauce, add the salt and pepper and yes some sugar to your taste. Some people like their sauce a bit runny others nice and thick. I'm somewhere in between, I just kept testing the consistency until it was to my liking. This is key when cooking, test your shit! That's it, grab some noodles and some parmesan, sprinkle the parsley on top and you're good to go. (Next time I'm gonna leave the parsley out, personal preference).