2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Mariana Zapata)
I have a problem when cooking. Because I live part-time in the Colombian countryside, I've become a spoiled princess about the freshness of ingredients. My taste buds simply don't enjoy canned and jarred food too much anymore.
This sounds great, but the issue is that I'm also a lazy cook, especially during work days. Maybe on rest days I don't mind spending extra time for a fresh home cooked meal, but no one has time for that on days when you're trying to turn things in on time. I am also not one of those people who finds washing dishes relaxing.
My heart is constantly torn between wanting delicious home cooked meals and not wanting to deal with the extra time and effort they take. Thankfully, there are some dishes that are very easy to make fresh, like pasta and a flavorful sauce. The heavenly combination of , and it's a classic that has never been dethroned.
I've foregone making the sauce at home because most recipes call for using a blender, and I just didn't want to deal with more dishes. Then, someone taught me the ultimate lazy person hack. As usual, you start with buying soft tomatoes and boiling them until they're easily pierced by a fork and their skins begin peeling.
Once , skip the blender and just add the fruit directly to a pan. Then smash them with a wooden spoon. That's it.
You now have delicious fresh tomato sauce. Blender-free tomato sauce tricks If you boil the pasta and the tomatoes at the same time in different pots, the starch will be ready around five minutes before the sauce. But when I have a bit more time, I boil the tomatoes while I add fresh vegetables to the saucepan, and then use the tomato water to cook the pasta.
This method uses less water, and saves me from having to wash two pots. Plus the tomato water adds a bit more flavor to the pasta. The one issue people might have with the blender-less trick is that the sauce tends to be more runny.
Since I usually add vegetables to the sauce, I don't find that this is an issue, but if you want thicker sauce, you can let it simmer for longer so the excess water evaporates. You could also add a bit of tomato paste (or gochujang, Korean pepper paste, for a tiny bit of spice). Once the tomatoes have been smashed and are simmering in the saucepan, I add condiments like salt, pepper, oregano, and fresh basil.
Use sweet and to give the sauce an unexpected kick. There are plenty of that are decent and cheap, but they can't compete with their homemade counterparts. Making fresh tomato sauce is so easy — especially now that you don't have to use a blender or an extra pot — that it's almost always worth the extra effort.
Recommended.
