A little "soul food"...

The kids were intent on playing in the kitchen this morning while I made my tomato sauce (I'll post the recipe later). I could see they were keeping a close watch on me while they built their fortress out of Mega-Blocks. And, on any other day, I'd consider the whole tomato sauce-task necessary & tedious. Today, however, a memory popped into my head which made me stop & reflect on what I was doing - sharing a moment.

I can still smell the sweet aroma of my Nonna Angelina's top-notch meat sauce. I can't tell you what she added; if you asked her, she'd tell you "a pinch of this & a fist-full of that". She cooked it as she felt it - no measurements, just intuition & feeling. When I'd come home from school, that sauce was guaranteed to be simmering away in that gigantic "pasta sauce pot". The handle was slightly askew, but old habits die hard. So, I'd come home from school (grade school, highschool, university) & there was nonna, stirring her trademark "sugo".

After my grandmother passed away in '94, the tradition was taken up by my mom & moved over to weekly-sauce making on Saturday morning. The aroma was slightly different, but equally sweet - somethings change, but the soul of the food stays the same...as does that pasta sauce pot!

So, I'm watching my kids...who are watching me stir the tomato sauce & I have a revelation: Food isn't just about nourishing our bodies - Food nourishes our soul. It isn't exclusively about calories, fat & fibre - it's also about love, frienship, and wonderful memories. Quite the lesson, don't you think? From now on, I'll focus on cooking with "heart", adding a pinch of this...and a fistfull of that....And here's my recipe for Steph's spectacular tomato sauce:

1/4 cup of good quality olive oil
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, crushed & coarsely chopped
2 boxes (750ml each) of Pomi chopped tomatoes (I substitute one with a jar of my in-laws' homemade "pomodoro", made fresh every end-of-summer)
1 small can of Pecchino tomato paste
1 scant tablespoon of sugar (to remove the acidity)
Salt to taste
1 bunch of fresh basil

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions & garlic & sautee' over med-high heat for 8 minutes or so, until transparent. Add the can of tomato paste & stir well. Add the chopped tomatoes & stir. At this point, I like to use my little blender-thingy to remove any large chunks of onion or tomato. Since I use the homemade tomato stuff, I add that...stir it all up. Toss in the sugar & mix. Then, season with salt... 1 tsp might do it. Now, bring the sauce to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer & let it cook (stirring once in a while) for about 45 minutes. In the last ten minutes, add the basil leaves. Voila'... it's done...ready to serve (and freeze too...it'll keep in the freezer for a month).