Hey, guess what? I still cook! I made this very easy, very rich and insanely good pasta sauce and I thought that you might want the recipe. I was already preparing it when it dawned on me so I will have to describe the first few steps.
Dice 1 medium onion and about 8 cloves of garlic. Dice about 8 slices of prosciutto. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil to a heavy open pan or pot and turn the heat to medium. Saute' the onion and prosciutto until the onions begin to soften. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of cracked black pepper, a teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of oregano, some rosemary, a bay leaf, a teaspoon of thyme and some pepper flakes. I also add tomato powder which I buy from Burlap and Barrel. This will give you a concentrated tomato flavor without diluting the sauce with too many tomatoes. Continue to cook this to toast the spices. Using a spoon, create a hole in the middle and add a small can of tomato paste. Cook the paste until it turns a deep dark red color.
Stir this all together and keep cooking it over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally .
Add the garlic.
You will see a crust forming on the bottom of the pan. That is a whole lot of flavor right there.
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De-glaze the pan by adding about 1/2 cup of hearty red wine.
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The sauce will be thick. Cook this as you scrape all of those brown bits off of the bottom of the pan.
Add about 1 teaspoon of beef or veal demi glace' and stir to combine.
Add one small can of tomatoes which you have squashed with your hand. I like to use canned cherry tomatoes from Italy.
Stir these into the rest of the ingredients.
Add a slight teaspoon of sugar. The amount depends on how acidic your tomatoes are. The cherry tomatoes are sweet and low in acidity so I use very little sugar.
You can add this or leave it out but I like to add about 1/4 teaspoon of liquid smoke. It really enriches the sauce and gives it just a hint of smokiness.
At this point the sauce should be perfect but I like to add a couple pats of butter which adds taste and gives you a satiny finish.
This sauce is simply amazing.
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