Interesting tips! I’m going to try #5 the next time I make spaghetti sauce. Instead of topping the spaghetti with it, I’ll finish cooking it IN the sauce. Yum! I also agree with #6 – always keep tomato paste in your pantry for adding to sauces and soups – it’s inexpensive and gives your dish a punch of tomato flavor (yes, that was punch not pinch!)
Tomatoes form the base of this recipe for David Rocco’s warming soup, a deliciously simple one-pot meal ready to serve in a little over 20 minutes.
David Rocco’s Tomato and Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp (56 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 fresh chili peppers, chopped
- 2 cans (14 oz/398 ml) tomatoes, such as Hunt’s Original Diced Tomatoes
- 1 can (19 oz/540 ml) lentils, drained and rinsed
- Salt, QB
- Pepper, QB
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste, such as Hunt’s Original Tomato Paste
- Water
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat olive oil. Add garlic, parsley and chili peppers and sauté for a few minutes until the garlic has started to turn golden.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes with the juice right from the tin. With the back of a wooden spoon, break up the tomatoes into little chunks. You can decide the consistency. Then add in the rinsed lentils, salt and pepper. Add tomato paste, and then add water about ½ an inch above the lentils. Bring to a boil, then lower to medium heat and cook for 20 minutes until the soup has thickened.
Notes
Hunt’s Tommalier Tip:
It's a tradition to make tomato lentil soup with sausage on New Year’s Day as it is supposed to bring good luck for the year ahead. For a heartier version that does not betray the soup’s cucina povera roots, break up some sausage and let it slightly brown, just before you add in the tomatoes.
Mmmm, pasta! My husband makes the most amazing pasta, loaded with veggies in a rose (alfredo & tomato) sauce – and I recently successfully replicated it! 🙂 We always add our pasta to our sauce/veggies and let it sit together for a bit before serving 🙂
I just took some tomatoes out of freezer. I freeze them if no one is eating them and they are about to go bad. I’m making my sauce today. But I use ground beef, no lentils for me! I usually in the summer jar around 50+ jars of spaghetti sauce (minus meat) my hubby loves spaghetti.
Christine that’s amazing! I make enough for one dinner and one frozen serving. I need your tips! I don’t jar but zip loc freezer bags work. Still, I only seem to manage the two-meal deal. 😛
When I get my spaghetti going in the summer I’ll def post my steps. Takes me usually three days to finish the jarring.
Mmmm! yum! Looks delicious!
Sounds simple and yummy
oh this sounds so delicious! thanks for sharing!