In my mind, I have this idea for a cooking show/cookbook, where one half is about making a basic recipe (grilled cheese, rice pilaf, fresh pasta, etc.), while the other half is about adjusting the recipe to one’s tastes (hence the “+1”). And since the last post talked about the red wine I bought for the pasta sauce I made, well…

I couldn’t find any tomato puree or paste or a handful of other ingredients one finds in a pasta sauce recipe. But the basic ingredients are within easy reach of anyone near a decent supermarket in Japan.

Basic pasta sauce

• Whole tomatoes, one 400g can
• Red wine, I usually have Merlot on hand
• Basil
• Sugar
• Salt
• Black pepper

Empty the can of whole tomatoes into a pot. Over a wire strainer, open each tomato and remove as many seeds as possible. Preserve as much of the tomato as possible and return it to the pot.

Add the red wine, usually half a cup, more or less depending on taste. Mash the entire mixture with a ricer or, ideally, a stick blender.

Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then over low heat, reduce by half while stirring occasionally. Add the basil while simmering. The sauce is mostly done once the pools of tomato juice and wine have disappeared, or if a spoon is run across the bottom of the pot, the bottom remains clear.

Add sugar, salt (no more than one or two pinches) and black pepper to taste.

+1 additions

• If you use bay leaves (and I often forget to, but it’s not the end of the world), add one or two before bringing to a boil. Remove them before adding the sugar, salt and black pepper.
• Sweat chopped onions, crushed garlic and/or sliced bell peppers in a pan with olive oil for 3-5 minutes. Add the mixture to the pot while simmering. Use the ricer or stick blender again after seasoning.
• One or two pats of butter will thicken the pasta sauce. If you sweat any vegetables with olive oil, keep to one pat.
• Parmesan cheese should be grated and added before seasoning.
• Gorgonzola cheese should be chopped as finely as possible before seasoning.

Serving suggestions

• Cook any long pasta to package directions and desired doneness. Make sure to add three tablespoons of salt to one gallon of water before boiling.
• If it’s all about image, drain the pasta and place in a bowl. Toss with olive oil, then add one to two spoonfuls of sauce to the top of the pasta for service.
• If you’re like me, and you don’t care about image, drain the pasta but reserve some of the water used for boiling the pasta. Toss the pasta in the bowl with one to two spoonfuls of sauce, and one spoonful of the starch water.
• Either way, there should always be a lot more pasta than pasta sauce so the sauce complements the pasta without overwhelming it.