Tomato Sauce from Scratch

This weekend ended up being a little less domestic and a lot more crazy than expected. I need a month long detox. But I did manage to get around to making my tomato sauce!

My roommate, his friend, and yours truly, were bumming around the apartment on Saturday evening with no energy left for going out to eat dinner. We debated ordering takeout, but I really needed to use up my tomatoes, so I told the boys I'd cook pasta. They seemed skeptical, but they took a leap of faith and agreed to eat pasta for dinner. They even offered to help in the kitchen :)

The tomato sauce was sort of improvised, but I was pretty happy with it.

Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 onions
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 package pasta
- salt and pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil

Recipe:
1. Peel and chop onions. Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Toss in onions and garlic.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes into small chunks.
4. Stir the onions and garlic occasionally until the onions turn slightly translucent.
5. Add tomatoes to the pan.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the pan simmer, stirring occasionally.
7. Put a pot of water on to boil.
8. When water reaches the boiling point, add pasta.
9. Boil the pasta for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
10. Drain pasta and set aside.
11. Chop up the jalapenos and basil leaves. Add to the pan.
12. Stir the tomato sauce and let it simmer until most of the liquid has boiled off. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
13. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve. Garnish with extra basil leaves if desired.

Note: Be careful with the jalapenos! We were informed by my roommate's friend that the peppers "weren't that hot." Turns out, they were. If you're worried about making the sauce too spicy, remove the seeds and the white pith (this is the spiciest part of the pepper) or just omit the jalapenos altogether.

The boys were impressed, especially since there was no meat in the pasta. We were all happily fueled up for a night out, I used up a lot of my leftover CSA share, and I didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! I'd say it was a success.