Pasta Sauce - 3 ways, and Homemade Pasta — Sweet Little Things {CLE}

Tis the season for tomatoes! My favorite time of year. While yes, I am obsessed with everything pumpkin and want to have pumpkin pie every day of my life, tomatoes are my true love. My cousins have always said, tomatoes makes everything 25% better, and it’s the truth! I could just sit and eat a fresh, ripe, local tomato as if it were an apple. Tomato sandwiches? Yes! Tomatoes on my eggs? You bet! Caprese skewers? Be still my heart! And that is just my love affair with ready to devour tomatoes. I’ve just recently started kindling my romance with different types of tomato sauces. I’ve dabbled in the French cuisine of making mother sauces, but only recently have I tried my hand at trying to make an Italian tomato sauce. I’m not Italian, but my stomach and my heart sometimes think I am.

The farmers market has been overflowing with canning tomatoes. Roma are my favorite. They are firm, low in water content, high in flavor… perfect for making a nice marinara. The other week my friend and her *new* fiancé (pardon me while I am still screaming for joy over this…) came over for dinner to tell us all about their recent trip to France. Mon petit chou and I were soon to be headed out there for our France vacation soon, so we needed to hear all about it. This was on a Thursday mind you, so my crockpot was my lifeline in making the sauce successful. It needs to simmer all day, and I personally don’t trust a flame under the pot to not scorch the sauce even whilst constantly stirring every five seconds. It was my second try at a marinara within the week, so I was itching to try and perfect it. Here’s the thing about tomato sauce, everyone likes their a little different. Some like it sweet, others with a punch of herbs and spices. So really, there is no “perfecting” a sauce, unless you are perfecting it for yourself (can’t please everyone, eh?). My first sauce came out sweet, it resembled a sauce you would find at the store with the amount of sweetness. The second (the one for our dinner) came out a bit more mellow and savory. The third was a whole different sauce profile; this was the one that was bursting with herbs, spices and just tasted completely different.

If anyone knows me, the only time I can be a perfectionist is when I am cooking or baking. I want it to come out just right. My millionth battle with fresh pasta was to take place for that dinner, and I prayed to the holy spaghetti monster up in the sky that this damn fresh dough turn out right, and it finally did! Praise meatballs! The meal turned out a success with a perfect sauce, tender pasta, some chicken parm and lots of stories and laughter. The way a meal should be.

**An immersion blender is something that will come in handy if you want a smoother, less chunky sauce. They aren’t very expensive, and you won’t regret the investment. I use mine for a lot of different things, including single serve smoothies.

Sweet Marinara

½ peck of canning tomatoes (preferably Roma variety), pureed whole –minus the stem section- in the food processor
3 large carrots, peeled
4 celery stalks
1 large shallot (they should be two bulbs/cloves under the papery skin)
6 cloves of garlic
1 large Hungarian sweet pepper
1 medium sweet onion
¼ cup chopped fresh basil, loosely packed
2 beef soup bones
2 heaping tablespoons of Italian seasoning
¼ cup turbinado sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Savory Marinara

½ peck of canning tomatoes (preferably Roma variety), pureed whole –minus the stem section- in the food processor
3 large carrots, peeled
4 celery stalks
1 large shallot (they should be two bulbs/cloves under the papery skin)
6 cloves of garlic
1 large green pepper
1 medium sweet onion
¼ cup chopped fresh basil, loosely packed
2 beef soup bones
2 heaping tablespoons of Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

For both the sweet and savory marinara sauces:

Put the carrots, celery, shallot, garlic, pepper and onion through a food processor and pulse until they are chopped finely. Mix together with the pureed tomatoes, basil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder (if savory), salt and pepper in a crockpot. Nestle the soup bones in the sauce and turn the crock pot on low.
Let simmer for at least 8 hours. About 1 hour before serving, take the bones out and scoop the marrow out into the sauce. Use the immersion blender to finely puree everything into a smooth sauce.

Garden Vegetable Marinara

½ peck of canning tomatoes (preferably Roma variety), seeds and goop removed, pureed
2 large carrots, peeled
3 celery stalks
1 large shallot (they should be two bulbs/cloves under the papery skin)
6 cloves of garlic
1 large green pepper
1 medium zucchini
8oz baby portabella mushrooms
8oz snow cap mushrooms
1 medium sweet onion
¼ cup chopped fresh basil, loosely packed
3 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed and saved for sauce
2 heaping tablespoons of Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Salt and pepper to taste
Put the carrots, celery, shallot, garlic, pepper, zucchini, snow cap mushrooms and onion through a food processor and pulse until they are chopped finely. Mix together with the pureed tomatoes, basil, thyme, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a crockpot. Turn the crock pot on low.
Let simmer for at least 8 hours. About 1 hour before serving, use the immersion blender to finely puree everything into a smooth sauce.

*Tip: if you want a thicker sauce, you can transfer this to a large pot for the last two hours and bring to a low boil to boil off some of the water.

Homemade Pasta

1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus some extra for kneading and rolling
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs

Combine the flour and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and crack the 3 eggs into it.
Slowly begin to combine the flour and eggs together with a fork, pulling the flour in from the sides of the well. It will begin to form a soft dough. (Note: you may not use all of the flour, that’s ok!)
Remove the dough and extra flour from the bowl onto a liberally floured, clean counter/surface. Begin to knead the dough, incorporating flour in, until it is firm and no longer sticky. It will be very elastic, and will spring back quickly when poked.
Divide the dough into four to six equal portions (four if you want longer pasta, 6 for shorter), dusting each with flour.
For use with a pasta roller machine: Begin to roll each dough ball through, starting on the widest setting working down to the thinnest of your preference. At each setting, you want to fold the pasta sheet in half and roll through about 3-4 times to get a smooth dough, and to work out any bubbles. Between each setting, lightly dust the sheets with flour to prevent sticking.
Once you have gotten to your preferred thickness, attach the noodle cutter that you would like (I like a wider, flat noodle myself), and feed the sheets through. Be sure to dust the noodles with flour to keep them from sticking to each other and creating a giant, noodle clump!
If you would like to roll the pasta by hand, get a very floured surface and rolling pin and roll each of the portions out. It will take a bit longer, but roll as thin as you possibly can get the dough. Cut the sheets with a nice, sharp knife, into equal ribbons, setting aside until you have all the portions done. Again, don’t forget to dust, dust, dust with flour to avoid any sticking!
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook 4-5 minutes until al dente. Top with your homemade pasta sauce and voila! Enjoy your hard work, and make someone else clean the dishes!