Mushroom and Three Cheese Tomato Sauce
November 5, 2006 | permalink

I made baked tortellini last night, with sauce I made from scratch, served with fresh bread and red wine. It was quite delicious, Gentle Readers. I can't really think of a better meal on a chilly evening, can you? And the leftovers are going to be fantastic...

Today is the NYC Marathon, as I am sure you are all aware. I am off to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street to go be the Northern Cheering Section for Osmium, among others. It's mile 21, and the point where the runners re-enter Manhattan for the final stretch. From conversations with past runners, it also sounded like it was a place without many people, where the runners could really use some cheering. I'll let you know...

Mushroom and Three Cheese Tomato Sauce

  • 7 Ripe Tomatoes, Large (3 Cut into Smallish Chunks, 4 Quartered)
  • 10 Baby Portabello Mushrooms, Caps only, Coarsely Chopped
  • 6 Large Garlic Cloves, Minced
  • One Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella
  • 1/4 Cup Parmesan
  • 1/4 Cup Romano
  • 1 Tablespoon Basil
  • 1 Tablespoon Rosemary
  • Olive Oil

Throw the Quartered Tomatoes, about a third of the Mushrooms, and the Cheeses into a blender or food processor and liquefy. Set aside.

Place a deep saute pan or saucepan over medium-low heat, and add a few tablespoons of Olive Oil. When the Oil is hot, toss in the Garlic and Onions. When the Onions start to give up their moisture, add the Basil and Rosemary, tossing well to get everything evenly coated. After a few minutes, add the chunks of Tomatoes and Mushrooms, again tossing well to evenly coat everything with Oil and Herbs.

When everything in the pan is hot, stir in the Tomato-Mushroom puree and turn the heat way down- about as low as you can get it. Loosely cover with tin foil (don't use the pan's lid- you do want a lot of the water to simmer out of the sauce. You just don't want it to happen too quickly) and let it simmer, giving it a good stir occasionally.

The longer you can let it simmer, the thicker, darker, and richer the sauce will become. To a certain extent this will continue even after it's sitting in the fridge, but on a much smaller scale. Four hours of simmering time is ideal, but it's quite tasty after only two and a half, even.

There are a lot of simple things you can do to get variations of this sauce. You can make it chunkier by leaving the tomatoes and mushrooms in larger pieces, and /or by pureeing a smaller proportion of them. You can also vary the amount or kind of spices and cheeses pretty much however you like, without affecting the underlying consistency at all. And of course, you can add whatever other vegetables tickle your fancy.

It is also easily scalable. Nothing weird is going to happen if you double or halve the recipe. You'll just get more or less sauce. As it's written, this makes a little more than a quart of sauce- just about perfect for a meal for three or four people.

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