Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce

Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce

2014 and 2015 First Place winners spoons

Saturday was the Annual Pasta-Sauce Off Competition hosted by the Cooking for Cancer Club in our area.  This club was created by two young girls in my daughter’s class to raise funds for children with cancer.  It benefits Carly’s Club of Roswell Park.

The event consists of volunteers making a pasta sauce and entering a competition.  Visitors purchase sample tickets and can sample all of the sauces and vote for their favorite sauce.  There is a huge basket raffle (94 baskets), a silent auction with some very unique treasures, a bake sale, 50/50 raffle, and all of the proceeds raised are donated to help make sick children’s lives a little bit better!  This event raised $5,000.00!!!!  Such a huge accomplishment for these girls!

Now on to the Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce—-last year I entered the event with a Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce and won 1st place!! (Recipe here: Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce)

This year I wanted to make a different sauce and decided on a Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce.  And guess what…I won again!!

Back to back victories 🙂

It is a lot of fun but even more so knowing you are doing something that will hopefully brighten someones day who may so desperately need it.

Here is the link to my Facebook page which has the recipe for you to try and a few pictures from the event!  The sauce is delicious and helped me top 13 other entries 🙂

CREAMY BASIL TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE

Chicken Macaroni Salad

Yesterday the boy of the house requested our Chicken Macaroni Salad for dinner.  Sometimes you need a little reminder of the summer as this is a dish I usually make for those lazy hazy hot summer days when you don’t want to cook or eat anything hot.  It’s also a great dish for a cookout or picnic lunch.

I made it for him (and my mother and nephew who happened to be here for dinner) and threw some watermelon and strawberries on as a side.  It was a nice look to the future of those coming summer days.

You can find the recipe for our Chicken Macaroni Salad on my Facebook page here:  Chicken Macaroni Salad

Julie’s Pasta Fagioli (Crockpot Cooking)

How incredible is a friend who brings you a batch of this for dinner???

My friend brought this over as she made a batch and it makes quite a large amount.  It was enough for 5 nice size bowls.  I grated a little fresh parmesan cheese and added a tiny basil leaf to each bowl which just enhanced the dish even more.

This is the perfect dinner for a cold night, family dinner, dinner party, or even pot luck as it makes a huge amount.  It is also something you can freeze in batches for those busy nights you don’t have enough time to cook.

This is only a portion of the amount she made:

Here is Julie’s recipe:

Julie’s Pasta Fagioli

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion chopped
3 carrots chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
2 cans (28oz) diced tomatoes – undrained
1 can (16oz) red kidney beans
1 can (16oz) white kidney beans
3 cans (10oz) beef stock
3 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons pepper
5 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 jar (20 oz) spaghetti sauce
8oz. Pasta
Brown the ground beef and drain.
Add all ingredients to crock pot except pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
During last hour on low or 30 minutes on high, add pasta.

This is the original recipe. Julie has changed it some for her family. – using half the amount of beans and double or almost double the ground beef and pasta.

When I make this (which will be soon) I will probably add 3 cloves of minced garlic as we love garlic in this house!!

Goulash

Goulash is a meat sauce served on either rigatoni pasta or elbow pasta in our house.  Tonight I made beef goulash.  I will say…it hit the spot!!

Here is how I make our goulash.  (Recipe at bottom)

I use a pound of ground beef and a 16 oz box of pasta.  You can add as many onions and peppers as you like!!

Boil the ground beef in water until no longer pink

Strain and add onion and peppers (these are our frozen peppers and onion from the garden)

Cover with sauce to the thickness you want to serve over your pasta

In the mean time boil your pasta

Once pasta is cooked, scoop some of the meat sauce onto the pasta to mix it up

Serve immediately so it’s nice and hot!!  A green salad goes well with this and some fresh homemade bread!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 16 oz box pasta

1 jar spaghetti sauce (or your homemade sauce)

1 small onion

1 small any color pepper

2 garlic cloves minced

Boil the ground beef until no longer pink (ground venison, turkey, or pork work great in this also)

Strain and rinse the beef and return to pan

Add the onions, pepper and garlic to the pan with beef and brown the beef

Cover and spaghetti sauce and keep it warm

Prepare the cooked pasta

Scoop a big spoonful onto pasta and mix

Serve the pasta with extra meat sauce on top

 

Easy and delicious

 

Meatballs and Pasta

Remember my post wayyyy back on August 10 (Sunday Food and Fun) where I made meatballs and froze them??  Well yesterday was a busy day and the perfect time to pull them out of the freezer, throw them in the crockpot and heat them with sauce for dinner.

I freeze meatballs in batches of 15 so I always have a couple bags going in the freezer for busy nights and sometimes even for a quick meatball hoagie for lunch.

I think of this dish as the ultimate comfort food and luckily there was enough left over for tonight’s dinner 🙂

My Meatball recipe: (there are pictures in the link above to the Sunday post)

1 lb ground beef, 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1 Tablespoon minced garlic, 1 egg, 1/4 cup milk.  Combine all and roll into balls.  Brown in a frying pan and bake for about 25 minutes in the oven until cooked through.  Let cool and freeze until ready to use.

 

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce = Ultimate Comfort Food Dinner

It was a nice day finally getting a little warmer and glimpses of sun but still cool enough to enjoy a comfort food dinner.  I opened a few jars of our sauce, browned some organic irradiated beef and boiled up some whole grain pasta.  I’m ready to burst but it was worth it!!!

Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce

In February I was asked to enter a Cancer cookoff.  It was called Cooking for Cancer Pasta Sauce Off.  The idea was to make a sauce and have people come to the event buy tickets to sample the sauces on pasta, basket raffles, 50/50 and silent auctions to raise money for Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY.  This was hosted by two 11 year old girls in my daughters class who created a club called “Cooking for Cancer”.  How could I refuse!!

So I went on a mission to find/create the best sauce I could to compete against 18 other entries and came up with my Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce.  Over 400 people attended the event and voted.  I am happy to say I won!!!  MORE IMPORTANTLY these two girls raised over $4,600.00 for cancer research!!

 

I must have collected 70 emails from people who attended asking for my recipe.  I made it tonight as a side dish so thought I would share it as it is SIMPLE!!!  Your friends will be impressed trust me!!  Recipe at bottom

This is all you need!!  Very inexpensive to make

Chop the onion and garlic and soften in butter in a sauce pan.  Next chop the sundried tomatoes very fine (I use my very small chopper which I love!!) but you can chop by hand if you want.

After the onion and garlic have sauteed in the butter for about 4 minutes add the finely chopped sundried tomatoes, tomato sauce, heavy cream and basil

Let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes while pasta cooks and serve on the pasta

When I make this as a meal I add cooked chicken into the simmering process and serve it over pasta.  It’s a full meal!!

CREAMY SUN-DRIED TOMATO SAUCE

1 small onion, diced small

3 cloves garlic, minced (I use fresh as it holds the flavor better but you can use jarred)

15 oz can tomato sauce (I use Contadina with Italian Herbs)

1 jar sun dried tomatoes, chopped very fine (I use about ¾ of the jar or adjust to more or less per your taste)

1 pint heavy cream

Basil, chopped fine (about 4 nice size leaves)

Olive or grapeseed oil roasted garlic flavored (you only need about 2 tablesoons)

3 Tablespoons butter

 

Saute the garlic and onion in the butter and olive oil until just soft (approx.. 4 minutes) in a regular sauce pan, when soft add the tomato sauce, cream, sun dried tomatoes, and basil. Simmer about 20 minutes very lightly so the flavors all combine.

 **I usually cut up some cooked chicken and throw it into the simmering sauce and then serve it over penne or ziti pasta.

 You can also add parmesan cheese to the sauce or sprinkle on after and for a zing toss in some red pepper flakes

Now next time you need to impress some friends…remember this sauce.  I’d love to hear from you if you try it!!!