Jonathan’s Sunday night pasta sauce

For everyone who has joined us for pasta night!

Sunday night is pasta night and it has become a regular tradition for us for years. We cook a lot of Indian food, so our children requested to have a “normal” non-Indian meal at least once a week! It all started as a special weekend dish that my husband would cook, and slowly, my son started helping out by chopping vegetables. Now, he is in charge of making the pasta sauce. We have also started having focaccia regularly with our pasta, and recently, I have been making my own pasta.

~ Marigold (Tagetes patula flowers). The genus name for marigold (Tagetes) comes from the Etruscan god ‘Tages’—the god of wisdom. Its common popular name, ‘marigold’, comes from “Mary’s gold” after Mother Mary. In Hinduism, too, the flower symbolizes auspiciousness. The saffron/orange colour signifies renunciation and is offered to God as a symbol of surrender.

Marigolds’ odour and root hormones scare many animals and insects from the garden. They are often used in companion plantings for tomatoes, eggplants, chilli peppers, and potatoes.

sunday night pasta sauce

preparation 2 hours

serves 6 – good for 500g pasta

ingredients

⅓ – ½ cup peanut/olive oil or to generously cover the base of a large saucepan

¼ heaped tsp asafoetida powder

1½ cups/155g celery

2 heaped Tbsp ginger, finely chopped 

2 cups/220g carrots

1½ cups/125g red bell pepper

1 x 140g tube tomato paste

1.5 kg/16 medium plump Roma tomatoes

3 heaped tsp fine rock salt

3 heaped tsp jaggery

to serve 

half portion home-made vegan pasta

pine nut parmesan

bowl steamed broccoli & kale, or grilled zucchini slices.

preparation

1. Wash the vegetables and finely chop the celery, ginger, carrot, and red pepper. Set aside in piles on a chopping board. Cut the base off the tomatoes and cut each tomato into quarters. Set aside.
2. Over medium heat, pour the oil to fill the base of a large pot. Add the asafoetida powder and fry for 30 seconds. Then add the celery and fry until the celery starts to soften. Add the ginger and carrot and simmer for 3 – 4 minutes.
3. Add the red pepper and simmer for 3 – 4 minutes more, then clear a space in the middle of the vegetables and squeeze in the concentrate; add the tomatoes and give everything a good stir—simmer, uncovered, over medium heat for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally. If the sauce is very liquid, leave it uncovered. If it is not very liquid, leave it covered but with the lid ajar.Toward the end of cooking, stir in the salt and jaggery. 
4. Once the sauce is ready, roughly puree using an immersion blender.  Serve with your choice of pasta, a sprinkling of pine nut parmesan, grilled zucchini, steamed broccoli or green beans.

Goodness shared from Stacey, Jonathan & Elijah