The Sauce is Where It's At

I was trying to imagine the meal I made last night devoid of all the sauces - it really would have been a dull affair. Of course had the sauces been poor, the result would have been worse than none at all. In terms of this whole dinner series, what I'm really after is to improve my sauce-making abilities. I've stayed away from the classic French sauces for now-still engrossed in curry sauces and sauces thickened with pureed vegetable - plus, pureed vegetable has certain health benefits over cream, white flour and butter (as delectable as all three can be in the right combinations).

Here's a recipe that I made last week and which I will make again next week for three friends:


Tomato sauce with Merlot and Fresh Basil – Theme and Variations
makes about 2 cups
In a 3L, heavy-bottomed saute pan:

saute
½ cup minced shallots in
2 Tbsp good olive oil
until shallot pieces start to turn brown at the edges
add
1-1/2 cups pureed tomatoes
(tomatoes, of course are the key to a good sauce – I used Aurora canned crushed tomatoes available at DeLuca’s-ripe, fresh, peeled and seeded tomatoes, would be preferable, but this Manitoba in spring)
and simmer for about 5 minutes
add
½ cup merlot
(take the advice of a cookbook author I read recently – "if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it" – I used left over Diablo Merlot)
stir to mix thoroughly.
Here I also added 2 Tbsp. of fresh chili sauce
(made simply by rehydrating dried Anaheim chili peppers, simmering, blending and draining – any kind of store-brand enchilada sauce would only ruin the sauce – in my case, this sauce added a nice kick and turned the colour of the sauce to a deep claret)
finally,
add
as much finely chopped fresh basil as you think you can handle
(about ½ cup loosely packed in my case)
stir again and simmer for another 10 minutes.
salt to taste. add a bit more wine if the sauce is too thick.
serve over pasta tossed with sauteed mushrooms or zucchini or eggplant or something else that meets your fancy.

OPTIONS:
1. to sweeten the sauce add ¼-1/2 cup pureed carrot with the tomatoes
and/or
2. to deepen the flavour, add ½ cup broiled, slivered almonds, crushed after broiling
3. omit the wine and add 1 Tbsp. vodka. after simmering, add ½ cold cream (slowly to avoid curdling)