This is my entry for this week’s presto pasta.  It’s kind of embarrassing because it is so simple that there isn’t even really a recipe.

A few weeks ago I was given a large amount of on-the-edge tomatoes.  I tossed them in the crockpot with garlic, basil, oregeno, onion, and various other sauce ingredients, let them simmer for several hours, and then pureed them and canned them in quart jars.  It was alot of work but I was so glad to have created 8 quarts of free spagetti sauce base!

Things have been nuts around here with the last quarter of the cookbook (sprint, Marye, sprint!) and Matt starting college and totally messing up my schedule…again.. I miss the days when the kids were small and life was predictible.  Anyway..for the first time in memory I have things like leftovers in the fridge. I know, I know..it is so WEIRD!

Yesterday we had a little of this and a little of that…some zucchini but not enough for a meal, part of an onion, a couple of green peppers…..I immediately thought of a fresh pasta sauce with all of those great vegetables tossed in.  There is almost no way I can give you a recipe for this because I used homemade sauce, and then leftovers…but you can do the same thing.  The best way to put this together is to use the crockpot on low for about 4 to 6 hours.

Lots of great vegetables do well in a pasta sauce, so when you have one limp carrot, for example, chop it, grate it, or slice it and toss it in to the sauce. Vegetables that I have used are:

• zucchini
• yellow squash
• carrots
• celery
• spinach
• onion
• shallots
• leeks
• mushrooms
• okra
• peppers of all sorts
• eggplant
• tomatoes
• chopped green beans

Add whatever you like to the sauce and toss in some basil, oregeno, salt, pepper, garlic, a stem of rosemary, about 2 tablespoons good olive oil…cooked leftover meat..shrimp…whatever …(told you this was easy)…

After it has filled the house with an incredible aroma for several hours,  cook enough pasta a la dente for your family and spoon the sauce over the pasta and serve…

This doesn’t even feel like a real recipe..LOL!

It is a great way to get rid of all the leftovers and have an easy meal that everyone will love!

Image:Marye Audet

Post from: Baking Delights