What do I do with all this red sauce?
June 5, 2011 10:04 PM Subscribe
I have about three gallons of truly excellent homemade tomato sauce. What can I do with it if I don't eat pasta?
Thin it out, if needed with some water, and put it on pizza.
Add Tabasco and Parmesan cheese and make eggs in purgatory.
Freeze it.
Use it to braise brisket or pot roast.
posted by lemonwheel at 10:17 PM on June 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Add Tabasco and Parmesan cheese and make eggs in purgatory.
Freeze it.
Use it to braise brisket or pot roast.
posted by lemonwheel at 10:17 PM on June 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Risotto - heat a few cups of low-salt broth of your choice. In a big saucepan over medium-high heat, sweat half an onion, finely chopped, with a cup of Arborio in 1T olive oil, then add hot broth a half-cup at a time with stirring, adding more every time the fluid is absorbed. When rice is just a bit chewier than you want it (probably 15-20 minutes), add a cup of the sauce and cook down until it's risotto-textured.
Salt sliced eggplant and zucchini in a colander, wait half an hour, press out excess fluid, and layer with sauce in a baking dish, top with cheese, 350F oven for 30-45 minutes (longer if your veg or sauce was too wet).
posted by gingerest at 10:19 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
Salt sliced eggplant and zucchini in a colander, wait half an hour, press out excess fluid, and layer with sauce in a baking dish, top with cheese, 350F oven for 30-45 minutes (longer if your veg or sauce was too wet).
posted by gingerest at 10:19 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
Pizza sauce? Braise meats, vegetables? Add stock, make soup? Use to enrich curries, stews, casseroles. Chicken Veal Eggplant Parmigiana? Use to make various forms of sauce (like diane)? Make a sort of risotto/mexican-y rice dish? Use as a dipping sauce for chips, wedges, snack food? Add some Asian flavours and make mee goreng or tomato fried rice? Shakshouka?
posted by oxford blue at 10:22 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by oxford blue at 10:22 PM on June 5, 2011
Marinara is delicious over polenta, especially broiled polenta.
You can make eggplant or chicken parmigiana.
You can poach eggs in it and serve them over bread.
You can put it up in jars (can it, I mean) and give it as gifts to people you really like. :)
posted by hansbrough at 10:22 PM on June 5, 2011
You can make eggplant or chicken parmigiana.
You can poach eggs in it and serve them over bread.
You can put it up in jars (can it, I mean) and give it as gifts to people you really like. :)
posted by hansbrough at 10:22 PM on June 5, 2011
Dipping sauce for garlic bread.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:24 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:24 PM on June 5, 2011
Oh! And a sauce for meatball subs. Or with burritos or tacos. Not authentic, but delicious.
Think of it as a base, and then add whatever flavours suited to the intended cusine. It's incredibly versatile.
posted by oxford blue at 10:27 PM on June 5, 2011
Think of it as a base, and then add whatever flavours suited to the intended cusine. It's incredibly versatile.
posted by oxford blue at 10:27 PM on June 5, 2011
It would help to know what kind of tomato sauce it is (smooth? chunky? spicy? sweet? etc?) and why you don't eat pasta.
posted by dersins at 10:33 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by dersins at 10:33 PM on June 5, 2011
You can also use a vegetable peeler to shave zucchini or summer squash into thin fettuccine-like strips, which you can boil (drain while still a bit crisp) and serve with the sauce just as you would pasta.
posted by Superplin at 10:34 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by Superplin at 10:34 PM on June 5, 2011
Do you not eat pasta, or do you also not eat carbs in general?
Also - chicken/veal/eggplant parmigiana.
Or as a topping for baked potatoes or for polenta.
The above mentioned eggs+sauce+poaching.
As a base for tomato soup.
As a base for a tomatoey stew or for chili.
Sloppy joes!
posted by Kololo at 10:36 PM on June 5, 2011
Also - chicken/veal/eggplant parmigiana.
Or as a topping for baked potatoes or for polenta.
The above mentioned eggs+sauce+poaching.
As a base for tomato soup.
As a base for a tomatoey stew or for chili.
Sloppy joes!
posted by Kololo at 10:36 PM on June 5, 2011
Many recipes involve tomato sauce. Off the top of my head, you could make swiss steak, slumgullion, chilaquiles, or butter chicken (murgh makhani).
posted by vorfeed at 10:39 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by vorfeed at 10:39 PM on June 5, 2011
Oh, yeah, and mexican rice to go with your tacos/burritos/etc.
posted by vorfeed at 10:40 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by vorfeed at 10:40 PM on June 5, 2011
Response by poster: Carbs are fine, so long as they aren't the bulk of the meal. So far the recommendations are awesome, thank you!
posted by honeydew at 10:44 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by honeydew at 10:44 PM on June 5, 2011
A favorite snack of a friend is a big hunk of soft goat cheese heated up in a bowl of marinara sauce and used as a dip for bread or chips. A gallon could go pretty quickly this way.
posted by bubukaba at 10:55 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by bubukaba at 10:55 PM on June 5, 2011
Pizza. Freeze most of the sauce for future pizzas.
posted by JesseBikman at 10:55 PM on June 5, 2011
posted by JesseBikman at 10:55 PM on June 5, 2011
The most amazing Sloppy Joes you've ever had. Forget about the canned stuff (ick. nast.) forever.
posted by katyggls at 11:20 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by katyggls at 11:20 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
If it doesn't have meat in it, you can probably can it, and then you can use it at your leisure.
posted by leahwrenn at 12:08 AM on June 6, 2011
posted by leahwrenn at 12:08 AM on June 6, 2011
Pour some in the bottom of a baking dish. Squish some really nice sausages in there, so they're about half-submerged. Chuck in some halved tomatoes, also half-submerged. Roast for 20 minutes or as long as it takes to cook the sausages, which will be nicely browned on top and succulent on the bottom. Roast some smashed potatoes to go with it, or serve with a green salad instead if the weather's warmer.
posted by harriet vane at 2:12 AM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by harriet vane at 2:12 AM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Especially if the sauce is chunky, use it as part of the based recipe for this incredibly healthy, incredibly tasty, and super-versatile Lively-Up-Yourself Lentil Soup!
posted by rockindata at 5:13 AM on June 6, 2011
posted by rockindata at 5:13 AM on June 6, 2011
On baked spaghetti squash. S'good.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 5:35 AM on June 6, 2011
posted by fivesavagepalms at 5:35 AM on June 6, 2011
If it doesn't have meat in it, you can probably can it, and then you can use it at your leisure.
Not necessarily -- tomatoes themselves are juuuuust on the edge of what is safe to can without a pressure canner, and the other ingredients typical to pasta sauce may be enough to tip it over into "unsafe." However, pasta sauce freezes well...
I'd also try using it as the base for a tomato soup. Maybe add a splash to minestrones, or thin it with broth and add spinach for tomato florentine. Or...tomato soup is a good blank canvas.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:11 AM on June 6, 2011
Not necessarily -- tomatoes themselves are juuuuust on the edge of what is safe to can without a pressure canner, and the other ingredients typical to pasta sauce may be enough to tip it over into "unsafe." However, pasta sauce freezes well...
I'd also try using it as the base for a tomato soup. Maybe add a splash to minestrones, or thin it with broth and add spinach for tomato florentine. Or...tomato soup is a good blank canvas.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:11 AM on June 6, 2011
@harriet vane: Placet.
Sorry, I just had to do that. I think the suggestion is awesome.
posted by Logophiliac at 8:27 AM on June 6, 2011
Sorry, I just had to do that. I think the suggestion is awesome.
posted by Logophiliac at 8:27 AM on June 6, 2011
white rice and sausage is super delicious with good red sauce--sometimes i like it more than any standard pasta affair (crazy i know). it's comforting home cooking-style food. yum.
posted by ifjuly at 10:48 AM on June 6, 2011
posted by ifjuly at 10:48 AM on June 6, 2011
I briefly wilt spinach in a saute pan with loads of garlic, then put it in a ramekin and pour some red sauce over it. Sprinkle some deliciously melty cheese on top (fresh moz or gruyere) and broil it until the cheese starts browning.
Devour.
posted by cooker girl at 4:32 PM on June 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
Devour.
posted by cooker girl at 4:32 PM on June 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
Logophiliac: I literally LOL'd :)
Other saucy ideas: Warm some of the sauce in a pan, put in some mussels and cover, cook for a few minutes. Or have it with meatballs and rice.
posted by harriet vane at 11:31 PM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Other saucy ideas: Warm some of the sauce in a pan, put in some mussels and cover, cook for a few minutes. Or have it with meatballs and rice.
posted by harriet vane at 11:31 PM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by simulacra at 10:12 PM on June 5, 2011