I’ve done this twice so far and it has been an astonishing success. Super-easy and you can use whatever fresh tomatoes are bouncing around your garden (in my case, often literally)!
- This sauce is basically two easy sauces combined: tomato sauce and creamy white “alfredo” sauce. Of course: white + red = pink.
First, make the tomato part of the sauce.
- Gather whatever tomatoes are bouncing around your garden. A couple of cupsful is fine. Any mixture of varieties will turn out delicious.
- While you’re out there, pick some basil. You’ll use it later.
- Toss the tomatoes with a bit of water into a small saucepan, add a bit of salt, cover.
- Cook on low until tomatoes start to lose their shape, and then you can turn it up a bit.
- Boil until tomatoes are soft and have lost most of their shape. Remove from heat.
- Add basil leaves to taste and purée in blender. Yes, you are leaving the skins and seeds. That’s why this isn’t a real rosé sauce. Don’t serve it to company. Keep it all to yourself!
Meanwhile, prepare a basic creamy white sauce:
- In a small saucepan, melt two to four tablespoons of butter over just-under-medium heat.
- Add a few crushed-garlic cloves, if you like garlic.
- Add two to four tablespoons of all-purpose flour (I use the same amount of flour as butter).
- Stir flour over heat in saucepan until it just begins to brown – DON’T LET IT BURN!
- Add a small amount of evaporated milk and stir the flour vigourously into the milk until smooth. It will be very thick at first.
- Add evaporated milk, 1/4 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly with each addition, until desired thickness or thinness of sauce is reached (or just toss in the whole tin!).
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Finally, bring the two sauces together to make the rosé sauce:
- Pour puréed tomato/basil sauce in blender into creamy white sauce.
- Stir vigourously to blend.
- If mixture is too thick, add milk. If too thin, let bubble on medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until desired thickness is reached. Or just give up – you’ll do better next time!
Toss with pasta or pour over top. Serve. Enjoy.
Oh, wow. I just made this for dinner. My tastebuds are exploding!
ReplyDelete