Easy dinner night!

I was really disappointed to find out that I would not be going out to dinner with my family tonight. We were supposed to go out for Greek food to a local Greek restaurant, and I had been looking forward to it for weeks. My little brother (who is actually a lot bigger than me now) is leaving soon for Japan, and we were going to go out before he left. Well, he's not leaving as soon as he originally thought (yay!) So we postponed the night out. Only problem was, I hadn't planned anything for dinner tonight, and I only found out last night that we wouldn't be going out. Then I remembered that I had some sauce in the freezer from a while back that I had been wanting to use up.

Maura had already asked for salmon tonight, since she discovered last night that she likes it. I made up a really simple baked salmon fillet for her, since she likes her food plain. But I just wanted to do something simple for me and Rob. So I grabbed the sauce out of the freezer before work this morning.

I love to try new things and work in the kitchen, but I also love easy dinners that don't take long and are still very yummy. And I got a great idea while roasting some zucchini for Maura. I topped my pasta (I used vermicelli tonight) with some of the roasted zucchini before I added my sauce. It tasted fantastic! The zucchini added such a wonderful flavor. I will definitely do this again. I hardly ever make my sauce the same way twice and I rarely measure things like spices. But I'll do my best to "guesstimate"

Kayte's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp tomato paste (I sometimes add more if I'm in the mood for a thicker sauce)
half of a green bell pepper, chopped
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
basil
oregano
salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
dash of sugar (I sometimes use brown sugar)

Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add onion and garlic and cook about 2-3 minutes. Add tomato paste and green pepper at this point and cook until the tomato paste "melts" (about 2 minutes, maybe less) Add tomatoes, and seasonings to taste. Simmer for atleast 30 minutes, checking taste along the way.

I really can't be sure how much of each seasoning I use. I really just start throwing things in. I'd guess about 1/2 teaspoon of each would be good. And sometimes I add a splash of red wine if I have a bottle open. That adds a really yummy flavor.


For the roasted zucchini, I slice my zucchini (actually, tonight I cut it into chunks, which worked out really well when I added it to my pasta), throw it on a baking sheet coated with olive oil spray, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, spray them with olive oil, and roast them in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. The next time I make the zucchini for my pasta, I will also sprinkle some parmesan cheese on them before roasting!