Back to my childhood when to stretch the dinner budget mom would whip up a quick pan tomato sauce using fresh sweet tomatoes, a little garlic, a few anchovy filets for a savory punch and a few sprigs of fresh sweet basil from the yard. This thick unctuous satisfying sauce was poured over a steaming mound of corn polenta. I am decended from a "Polentone". My mother Luigia, is from the far reaches of the North Eastern Italian region known as Friuli Giulia Venezia. A collection of farm villages near Udine in a hamlet named Campo Lessi that survived from what they raised and grew on their land. By the way, their excellent wine, cheese and salami made from their own pigs is a favorite meal of my lifetime.
I am proud of my family and lucky to have visited the family farm twice.
This tomato gravy recipe is also wonderful on potatoes, pan fried eggs, shrimp, roasted chicken and in a documented case over a bean burrito topped with fresh ricotta cheese.
Two 20-oz containers of grape tomatoes (sweet)
3 garlic cloves, do not substitute garlic powder
5 anchovy filets, finely diced
1/4 cup fresh sweet basil leaves, roughly chopped
1/4 tea. red chili flakes
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
3 Tbl. red wine vinegar
salt/pepper to taste
Begin preparation by chopping each tomato into 2-3 pieces, crush garlic cloves, dice anchovy filets and rough chop sweet basil.
Place first six ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium low heat for 20-30 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down, salt and pepper to taste, you're done!
Have fun experimenting with topping your favorite dishes, I suggest mashed potatoes to start.
