Recipe Fridays: Raw Tomato Sauce

I’ve mentioned that I’m completely blessed and have an awesome life (not braggin’! just sayin’!) – this is just yet another example.  I’ve been in the market for a food processor for a while now; my mother and sister have tried to buy me a combination food processor/blender for a while as well.  (Because I live in an apartment and have extremely limited space, it seemed like the obvious solution to get one that shared a base.)  Unfortunately, reviews of combo machines were not favorable, and I hesitated to buy (or have my sister/mother buy) something that didn’t sound amazing. 

Enter: Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie’s Kitchen.  I happened to sit near her during the dinner portion of the Scharffen Berger event we attended, and during the course of normal conversation, she mentioned that she did work for Cuisinart.  I told her I was in the market for a food processor, and was about to ask her if she had any recommendations for someone who wants a combination, or a small one for a NYC apartment, and she responded with, “Actually, I received a card for a free Cuisinart food processor in a swag bag at an event I attended recently, do you want it?” 

Ummm…….. yes!!!  Thank you again Jennifer!!!

Here it is in all her glory.  How purrrrrrrrrrrrrty!  It’s not ginormous nor too tiny.  And I knew exactly what I was going to make first! 

A ‘raw’ tomato sauce – as in, doesn’t get cooked. 

I served it with some Trader Joe’s angel hair, but I think this type of sauce would be better with a slightly thicker noodle. 

Either way, it tasted awesome.  And you can totally make this without the use of a food processor, your sauce will be chunkier, is all. 

Raw Tomato Sauce (adapted from Eating Well)

Plum/Roma tomatoes
Pitted Kalamata olives
Cloves of garlic (I really like garlic, so I used a lot; use your judgement)
Fresh basil (I plucked my plant near-clean!)
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil (I used Olave basil oil, since I still have some, but you can use any extra virgin olive oil, really)
Red wine vinegar
Cubes of mozzarella and/or freshly grated Parmesan (or any hard Italian cheese would work nicely; I opted to only use mozzarella this time)

Combine the first 4 ingredients in your food processor.  If you don’t have one, no worries! just chop them all and toss into a bowl. 

Add salt/pepper to taste, then mix with olive oil and vinegar to taste. 

You can actually eat this as a gazpacho-like soup, which I did one day, and had some as a type of salsa another day.  Pretty damn tasty. 

However, I cooked up a bit of Trader Joe’s angelhair pasta, and put a bit of sauce in the bottom of a bowl, along with cubed up mozzarella.  When the pasta was cooked properly, I pulled it straight from the pot into the bowl, letting a bit of of the pasta water cling to the strands of spaghetti.  Tossing it all around together until the mozzarella melted a bit and the sauce absorbed into the pasta, I ate it happily after that.  SO. Freaking. GOOD!!!

Happy eating!!!