Summer is a special time for our family. Since I am able to stay home with my two favorite little people, our "to-do" list is ever growing. The one project the kids and I have enjoyed this summer is tending to our garden. We are growing many different veggies as well as fresh herbs. Our basil plant has been quite the success. Two days ago, I went out again and harvested approximately 2 Cups of basil leaves. A pesto sauce seemed to be the easy way to use this abundance of basil, however, I would then need to make a market run for pine nuts. I looked around my kitchen and spotted my loot of tomatoes resting by the window, waiting for salsa to be made. And then it hit me, Vodka Basil Spaghetti Sauce. It felt a little funny grabbing the vodka bottle from the liquor cabinet first thing in the morning, lol!
The "Mad Scientist" in me dove right in to this concoction. I first chopped a yellow onion and minced a half head of garlic, cooking the onion and garlic to a nice translucent appearance. Then adding one cup of vodka carefully, remember alcohol is very flammable! I then started cutting approximately 20 tomatoes and chopped basil and added to the vodka saute. Needing additional flavors, cilantro, oregano, ground cayenne peppers, salt, and pepper were also thrown into the bubbling goodness forming in my dutch oven. Now this was smelling delightful, and I had to walk away and let everything cook down a bit. After a couple of hours of simmering, the sauce was too chunky for my liking. I poured the sauce into the blender, taking out the middle lid piece to allow the heat to escape. Held a towel on the lid and pushed blend.
This worked out perfectly! A couple of cans of tomato paste were added to thicken the sauce before serving.
Onto the homemade spaghetti. This is when the kids always appear, watching, helping, eating the raw noodles.
One of my favorite meals is left-over spaghetti, I enjoyed day two of the meal simply because I would mix the leftover noodles and sauce in a container and warm it the next day together. I have learned now how to get that taste immediately. After cooking the noodles and rinsing them with cold water, place your serving of noodles in a pan, add your sauce and saute the two, this will help marry the flavors, incorporating the taste into the noodles.
YUMMY!
I do apologize though, I do not have an exact recipe. Like I said before, I am a "mad scientist" type of cook, throwing and adding, never following a recipe. Therefore, just experiment with the ingredients I mentioned, adding a little at a time, and come up with what tastes best for you and your family. Enjoy!!!
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