Any homecoming is nice but when you’ve been far away and sick, coming home to your sweetheart is even sweeter. After trying my best to keep my spirits up despite the aches and fever I felt while running around London with co-workers on a “treasure” hunt (the treasure turned out to be copious amounts of alcohol and dancing the Virginia Reel with my CEO)…I finally caved to the “I-feel-like-crap-and-want-my-husband” voice that I had kept at bay for three days. The ride home in the Eurostar was bad enough but the trip between Paris and Lyon was pure misery.
My man was waiting at the front door for me and when he opened it, I caught a whiff of the wonderful smell of his tomato sauce. My husband isn’t pure French. His grandfather is Italian and his half-Italian mother taught him quite a few recipes. He had a fire going in the fireplace, hot tea for me, my special pillows and blanket ready on the sofa and dinner on the stove. The Perfect Man. (and he’s irresistible even when I’m sick)..but I digress.
Last night I ate the best tomato sauce I have ever had. This was the first time I tried his tomato sauce. He makes a great ratatouille as well but with fresh tomatos. This sauce was very different, it tasted like fresh tomatoes off the vine. I asked him for his recipe and he named it, “Simple, tomatoes from the can, onions sauteed in olive oil, a cube chicken bouillon, a pinch or two of nutmeg and some salt”. That’s extraordinarily simple. I was unsatisfied with the answer. This tomato sauce was so good that I kept insisting he must have forgotten to name some secret ingredient. “It taste too fresh”.
So I pressed him a bit about the tomatoes he used. He kept insisting he just picked up a can of tomatoes from the store on the way home. Since he wouldn’t cooperate with my interrogation and because as a Foodie I know that when my Spidey Senses are tingling, I better listen to them, I went to the kitchen and looked in the bin. There it was….. a can of Mutti Polpa tomatoes. I mean, I’ve used many can tomatoes over the years but they never tasted like this. As it turns out, after a bit of internet “research”, I found that Mutti Polpa tomatoes are the #1 tomatoes in Italy (I live under a rock) and that they add no additives or preservatives. I’ll never use another brand.
I’ve found over the years that a recipe doesn’t need to be complicated to be good. But often there is just one or two ingredients, that if used in the right form or from one specific brand, make all the difference in the world. It’s kind of like meeting and falling in love with the right man. After him, no other man will do. It’s the Ultimate Brand Loyalty.
Here’s my Darling’s perfect tomato sauce.
1 large can Mutti Polpa peel and diced plum tomatoes (he says be sure to get the peeled version)
1 tablespoon of organic tomato paste
1 large onion
4 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 pinches nutmeg
1 chicken bouillon cube
Salt if you need it (careful, the bouillon cube is already quite salty)
Finely chop the onion and then sautée in olive oil until golden but not brown
Add the tomatoes, bouillon and nutmeg. Simmer for 5 minutes on low heat. Remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes (for the flavours to rise). Then return to heat just long enough to heat it to the temperature you want to serve it at.
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