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Twice-as-Red Tomato Sauce

A Cooking with Kids Original Recipe

This brilliant, crimson-colored sauce gets its color from red peppers and tomatoes, which together make it naturally sweet and flavorful but not at all spicy. Parents love it because it contains no oil or fat, and it's loaded with vitamins C and A. The pureed onion can't be seen or chewed, so that even onion-phobic kids can enjoy it. Use it on pastas, casseroles, and in Lazy, Crazy Lasagna.

Young chefs can practice their knife skills with this recipe. Because the sauce is pureed, the vegetables can be coarsely chopped, and it doesn't matter if they're not completely uniform in size. This is a simple recipe, but it does require some experience working with blenders or hand blenders.

Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus occasional stirring
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 1 quart

 

Ingredients and Steps

• 2 large red bell peppers, about 14-ounces
• 3 large cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 28-ounce can peeled, chopped tomatoes in juice

 

1. Remove the core and membrane from the peppers and discard.
2. Peel and trim the garlic and onion.
3. Coarsely chop the peppers, garlic, and onion.
4. Combine the peppers, garlic, onions, chicken broth, and tomatoes with their juice in a large pot or saucepan on high heat. (Tip: Deep sides keep the sauce from splattering.) Cover the sauce and bring to a boil.
5. Remove the cover, lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
6. Blend the sauce until smoothly pureed. If using a handheld blender, insert the blending end directly into the sauce, as described in Chapter 14. If using a tabletop blender, blend the sauce in batches to prevent over-filling the blending container.
7. When all of the sauce is evenly pureed, boil uncovered, about 12 minutes, until reduced to about 4 cups (-2/3 of the original amount). Taste the sauce—the flavors should be concentrated, not watery. Serve on pasta or in the Lazy, Crazy Lasagna recipe. The sauce may be refrigerated until cold, and then frozen for later use.

 

When blending hot sauces, be careful not to burn yourself from the sauce or its steam. Let the sauce cool slightly first. Hold a folded kitchen towel securely on the blender lid to protect your hands from any heat and to keep the lid in place. Flip to Chapter 14 for more tips on working with blenders.

 

For easy clean up, use a wire mesh splatter guard (shown in Chapter 3) to keep the sauce from splattering.

 

Recipe © 1999, 2007 by Kate Heyhoe