Oh boy the past few days have really been busy here in Aix en Provence. University was closed down because students throughout the whole country organise strikes against a law that would give full autonomy to universities (hence allowing selection of students by making them pass an entry exam). Many are fearing that this might lead to a full privatization of the university system (tuition fees etc). Anyway, all of this is quite new to me… I couldn’t imagine that a strike could block a whole university (or several actually) :p
So when you are in a stressful time you need to cook quick meals. Any form of pasta is handy but what kind of sauce can you make easily without fussy ingredients? Well of course, tomato sauce… But actually this is the first time since ages that I attempted to cook a tomato sauce. Usually the taste was always too bland or too acid and I preferred eating plain pasta. But I found an awesome recipe in a German cooking magazine, featuring one of my favorite German cooks, Tim Mälzer. I loved the sauce because it had a slightly sweet taste, didn’t include annoying onion or garlic pieces but was still very flavourful. Ricotta cheese goes incredibly well with this because it softens the taste of the sauce and rounds it up nicely.
Ingredients (Adapted from Essen & Trinken, Für jeden Tag – Nr.10)
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 clove of garlic, halved
- 400g of tomato dice (can) or tomato purée
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 50 ml water
- salt, pepper
- 1 generous pinch of sugar
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 100g of ricotta cheese, drained
Preparation
- Put the onion, garlic and tomato dice/purée in a pan. Add the butter and the water and season with salt, pepper and sugar. Let it cook for about 30 minutes at medium heat. (Stir once in a while)
- Remove the onion and the garlic pieces. Add the olive oil and the basil. Adjust seasoning if needed.
- Serve on the pasta of your choice (goes really well with Gnocchi too). Sprinkle with ricotta cheese.
Serves 2. Enjoy.
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