Experimental pasta sauce

Tonight's dinner. It was quick and easy to make, given my very specific pantry. I'm posting this because It worked well and I believe it will adapt well. This post is less of a recipe than a post-mortem. 



We had in the fridge: a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce, and the last of a bottle of rosé. We also a some farmer's market tomatoes, and fresh pasta. We always have heavy cream at hand.

"Recipe"

I mixed in a bowl

1. the two tablespoons of tomato sauce

2. a glug or so of the rosé

3. a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream

4. two teaspoons of fish sauce

5. a teaspoon of sugar 

6. One medium tomato, diced

7. a tablespoon or so of butter (I did not bother to melt/mix this in)

Rob cooked the fresh pasta (tagliatelle --- I forgot to salt the water, alas! So annoyed at myself), drained when it was not quite tender enough, then set it back in the pot it was boiled in. I put pasta and pot back on the heat, added the contents of the bowl, and cooked over high heat until some of the liquid was absorbed by the pasta and the starch thickened the rest. Then served in bowls, ground over some black pepper and garnished with a few slivers of basil (we have a couple of plants otherwise would not have bothered). 


Post-Mortem

1. Substitutes for home-made tomato sauce: I'd use jarred tomato sauce, or tomato paste. It deepens the flavor, so I wouldn't skip. 

2. White wine would have probably been more appropriate but we had open rosé. I'd use either (wouldn't be able to tell the difference honestly) but would not use red. The wine really enhanced the flavor --- again, I wouldn't skip. 

3. If I didn't have cream in the fridge, I'd use extra butter. We don't keep half-and-half around, but if we did, I'd use that. 

4. If I didn't have fish sauce, I'd substitute salt. Fish sauce and tomato go super well, though! Both umami.

5. Sugar is a staple, so no comment here.

6. If I didn't have a fresh tomato, I'd consider making this without. In particular, I might make this over the winter with our rapidly-being-replenished stock of frozen tomato sauce. 

7. Butterfat seemed like an important factor in texture/flavor. I don't know much about substitutes and I don't have any useful suggestions for veganizing by eliminating both butter and cream. If I had cream but not butter (can't imagine this happening) I'd skip butter and add extra cream. 

8. The fact the we used fresh and not dried pasta made a big difference. In fact, this recipe was motivated by the fact that Rob went to Eataly so we had access to fresh pasta today, and I wanted a sauce that was fresh-pasta-appropriate. I could see myself making this with dried spaghetti though. 



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