Pasta baked in ugly sauce.

[Skidmore]

It's getting cool here and the tomatoes are no longer ripening on the vine. So I picked a bunch of them green and spread them out on trays in the laundry room to ripen in the house. In additon we had gobs of them still from before the cool weather set in that were slightly beyond the BLT stage of firmness. Some of these were the uglies--you know the ones that were not exactly round or had a spot here or there. Well, I cored them and added a little water to them in a huge pot and cooked them down in their own juices for a day, gave them a rest, and cooked them down some more the next day to reduce them. I mashed them periodically with a potatoe masher. The skins cooked in with the pulp and I don't mind seed being present in my sauce so I left them in and didn't strain them. Well, I froze quart bags of the basic ugly sauce, but kept a quart out for immediate use.

I boiled a mixture of farfalle, little shells, and penne and drained. In a heavy pan I sauteed spicy Italian sausage (bulk) and drained the fat off, I added a bit of olive oil, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, a handful of chopped fresh basil, some chopped fresh parsley, fresh oregano, fresh chopped spinach. and a chopped large onion, and sauteed until the onion was crispy tender. Then I added chopped green pepper and a ton of chunky sliced shrooms (I love shrooms). After letting this cook through a bit, I added the ugly sauce, salt, coarse ground pepper and dried red pepper flakes and a little watter to get it started. When it began to simmer nicely and the sauce had lost it's watery content, I tossed in the pasta and mixed it well and popped it into a 350 degree oven and let it back for about half an hour. Then I pulled it out and sprinkled it with mozzarella and parmesan, returned it to the oven for another few minutes to allow the cheeses to melt. Turned the oven off and let it res for about 15 minutes.

This was really tasty served with crunchy toasted garlic bread and a Ceasar salad. My grandbabies really liked it and my little 3-year-old self-crowned princess girlie calls it "special skettie."

[NMDemDist2]

1. yum-MIE!!!!

I miss my fresh herbs. I really gotta get some going here. and maters are definately on the list for next year

:bounce: