Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge - Pasta Sauce

Nancy Drew Fans are doing the Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge over at Facebook at the Nancy Drew Book Fans Group - join the group and participate! 

Let's get to the bottom of the mystery of whether or not the Nancy Drew Cookbook recipes are good recipes! Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to select at least one recipe from the cookbook - feel free to make more than one however, and then share your findings - a review. Take pictures! You can also share at Twitter @nancydrewfans or Instagram @nancydrewsleuths and #nancydrewcookbook

I made the infamous Italian Salsa Di Pomidoro (Tomato Sauce) recipe on page 138. It is a very simple pasta sauce. Very easy to make. 4 rating, 4 or 5 when I souped it up a little 😉 I fixed mine with a little Cheese Tortellini for lunch which I picture below and then later for dinner served with some sausage and spaghetti pictured last--the recipe called for spaghetti. 

 

The taste was good, but I used some fabulous San Marzano tomatoes and they are so good. I also puréed it all in a blender. Would make again. Nancy’s tip is to add oil to cooking water for pasta so it won’t stick - you can, but sometimes the sauce adheres better to the pasta if you don’t do that. I am always tweaking recipes but this wasn’t bad as is for the most part. I make my own sauce and sometimes use garlic too plus basil and fresh basil is always yummy. I often make my sauce without tomato paste and just purée the tomatoes and use some tomato sauce, so really this is a simple recipe you can enhance to suit your tastes. As always check the flavor of the sauce as it simmers and adjust the seasoning to suit you plus the acidity of the tomatoes is counteracted by the sugar, so don’t skip that ingredient. Always adjust as needed by tasting as you cook.  Here's the page with the ingredients - the actual first printing of the cookbook, left out the tomatoes in the ingredients list.

 

 

Easy way to dice an onion - and fast is to slice it several ways with your knife before the final top to bottom cut - don't cut off the root end so that way it stays together while you dice it up to the edge of the root.

 

 

The recipe called for cutting up the tomatoes, but I just put all my ingredients in the blender and pureed it all. If you wanted a chunkier sauce you could cut them up. I used a 28oz can of tomatoes instead of the 16oz, wanted to make a little extra, so adjusted seasonings for that extra amount.

After sauteing your onions (I used about half the onion only) in olive oil, you add the sauce and then simmer - recipe says 45 minutes, I did mine about 15 minutes while the tortellini cooked. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top if you like and some fresh or dried oregano and/or basil.