Thai Basil Pasta Sauce

Thai Basil Pasta Sauce

This is my secret Thai Basil Pasta Sauce made from Roma Tomatoes, all fresh herbs from my garden, a whole lot of patience (keeping David out of the Pasta Sauce is a chore), and waiting overnight, to have a very tasty Thai Basil Pasta Sauce.

Using fresh Roma tomatoes, and all fresh herbs makes this sauce delicious!  If you can refrigerate overnight, you won’t believe the flavors!

You can download and print out the recipe and complete step by step instructions, click on the below hyperlink:

Thai Basil Pasta Sauce

Thai Basil Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

5 pounds Roma Tomatoes, diced

3 medium Onions, chopped

1 sprig fresh Rosemary, minced

3 tablespoons fresh Oregano, chopped

1/4 cup fresh Sweet Basil, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh Thai Basil, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh Thyme

5 – 6 cloves fresh Garlic, minced

1 Bell Pepper, chopped

2 fresh Bay Leaves

1/2 bottle Sangria or Red Wine

1 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

1 stick Butter

Chopping the tomatoes

You can save money by buying the tomatoes on a sale day based on where you live. I have the habit of buying a lot of the ingredients on Wednesday which is a sale day here. I always choose Roma tomatoes as they are best suited for making tomato sauce.  They look great all laid out and ready, huh?

It is good to spread out the tomatoes on a towel before chopping instead of keeping them in the plastic shopping bag. Tomatoes become moist and get spoiled quicker when kept in a plastic bag and we want them to remain nice and fresh.

Don’t waste anything when slicing tomatoes, even the top end of the tomato can be used for the compost pile.  The slice should approximately one fourth of an inch thick and the other end of the tomato can also be used.

Cut the slices into small chunks and then put them in a big pot or container. Make sure that the container is big so that it will be easy to make the tomato sauce in it.

Collecting the essential herbs

Even though basil is the primary herb I grow, there is sometimes a need for other essential herbs when making a recipe. One of the important essentials to make the tomato sauce is spicy Oregano, which adds a special spicy flavor to the tomato sauce.

Always cut the oregano at the junction so it doesn’t leave the oregano stringing. If you end up cutting extra oregano, you can always store it in a ziplock bag and freeze it for future use.

Another important essential for my Pasta Sauce is the bay leaf. Even though it is an expensive plant to buy, it can grow strong and large in no time.  Try to find and grow your own bay leaf plant.

Since the bay leaf is a slow grower, do not cut the leaf at the top, instead look for the older ones at the bottom and cut it. One or two bay leaves is enough for the Pasta Sauce, and you’ll want to make sure that you pull the bay leaf out when the sauce is finished.

One more important herb for making the Pasta Sauce or any Italian recipe is Rosemary. It has the capacity to last through the winter and can turn in to a beautiful large bush. This is one herb that can be used both for decoration and also in recipes.

Rosemary is a strong herb which can produce a strong scent, make sure you are using it sparingly in your recipe. Just cut a little piece of rosemary, take it off the stem and use it for your recipe.

My secret herbs for the Pasta Sauce are the Sweet Basil and Thai Basil. Sweet Basil is a common basil we can use for various recipes and Thai basil is one which gives a spicy and heavy flavor to the recipe.

Since Thai basil is a very strong basil, make sure that you are using only little bit of it in your recipe.

Washing the Sweet and Thai Basils, and Cutting

It is always a good practice to wash all the herbs before using them. The herbs may have dust and other materials deposited on them and cleaning them by washing the herb makes it very hygienic.

Wash the herb with cold water so that it will liven up the herbs; make sure all the herbs that are going to be used for the recipe are washed thoroughly.

After washing the basils, keep put them on a paper towel so that they can dry.  There is just something special about cooking with basil and other herbs.

The Bay Leaves, you can just wash.  No need to cut up, because you will want to find them easily to remove when the Pasta Sauce is finished.

Peel off the leaves from the stem of Rosemary, the same should be followed for Oregano too. Make sure that you are not getting any stems and then put the different herbs in different containers.

Cut the Oregano and Rosemary leaves with kitchen scissors (kitchen scissors are different from garden scissors and should be used exclusively in kitchen only). Cut the leaves in to small pieces.

Chopping the Bell Pepper

Another important ingredient for the Pasta Sauce is the bell pepper, although the Basils play an important role in deciding the taste of the tomato sauce, the Bell Pepper makes it complete.

Make sure that nothing is wasted; even cut the top part of the Bell Pepper and take it down to the stem, you can use the remaining of the top portion for the compost pile.

Chopping the Onion

Cut both ends of the onion and peel off the skin so that the outer skin of the onion gets completely removed.

Cut the onion a little bit coarse but not super chunky.  The onion easily cooks down and it’s good enough if you cut them coarse.

Peeling and Mincing the Garlic

It can be very hard to peel garlic, but there is a simple trick through which we can easily peel it off. With the broader end of the kitchen knife over the garlic hit with the palm of your hand gently and smash it. The garlic will peel off very easily then.

If the garlic that is cut is a bit coarse, use your kitchen scissors to make it more minced.

Sautéing the Vegetables and Cooking the Roma Tomatoes

I use real butter to sauté the vegetables in.  Using good old butter adds more taste to the Pasta sauce. Melt a half a stick of butter to sauté the vegetables.

Add a little amount of garlic to the butter. If there is a lot of garlic left, add olive oil to it and then refrigerate it. Always add just minimum garlic as we are going to taste the recipe throughout, and we can always add some more garlic at a later time if needed.

Add the onion.  Since we are using 5 pounds of tomatoes to make the Pasta Sauce, add a considerable amount of onion. The purpose of adding all the ingredients with butter is not to cook all of them down, but to fuse all the flavors.

Add the chopped Bell peppers. And add the Rosemary. Add salt to the Pasta Sauce, but make sure it is minimum (you can always add more at a later time). The salt helps the vegetables to release their flavors and add little bit of pepper according to your personal taste and sauté the mixture for few minutes.

Set the mixture aside.  It’s time to cook the Roma Tomatoes. Since the tomatoes take a long time to cook down, it is good to cook them at medium high. Do not add any water to the tomatoes; they will make lots of juice on their own as they cook.

Adding the Sweet and Thai Basil

Chop the Sweet Basil and Thai Basil right before adding to the Pasta Sauce.  Since these Basils are tender, it is not necessary to add them at the beginning.

Keep tasting the Pasta Sauce and add more salt and pepper if you want.  This is the reason why we added only a little first so we know the real taste after it cooks down.

Let it cook for a few of hours now.

After simmering for several hours, the Pasta Sauce is finally ready.

However, if the sauce is too chunky; you can give a smooth texture to the sauce by putting it in a blender or food processor.

Take the bay leaves out of the sauce, the bay leaves can be found easily by stirring the sauce.

The tomato sauce is ready now! You can serve immediately, but I always refrigerate overnight.  It really brings out all the flavors!

If you are using as a Spaghetti Sauce, you can add mushrooms, meatballs, or meat.

I hope you enjoy my Thai Basil Pasta Sauce!

Love Your Basil,

Ramona