Spicy Tomato Pasta Sauce
The secret ingredient is...mustard!
Spicy Tomato Pasta Sauce
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Lunch
This pasta sauce is SO GOOD. The secret ingredients that bring it all together are mustard and gochujang! Sounds weird, but think about it—ketchup and mustard go well together, so why not heirloom tomatoes and mustard? The other key thing here is to blend the sauce in an immersion blender, to get a really smooth, creamy consistency. If you’re hesitant about getting an immersion blender, get over that fear! It’s so much easier to use, store, and clean than a normal blender, and for one person, it’s usually the perfect size too. Lastly, you can skip the goat cheese here if you’re not a cheese fan, and substitute with heavy cream!
Ingredients/Tools:
Pasta (preferably a squiggly one like gemelli or cavatappi)
1/2 a white onion
1 clove garlic
1 heirloom tomato
Butter
Yellow deli mustard (grainy is better!)
Gochujang
Goat cheese
Immersion blender
Method:
Boil the water for the pasta, and cook the noodles. They should be done cooking by the time you’ve finished the sauce.
Slice the onions and mince the garlic, then chop the tomato into big chunks.
Add lots of butter and a touch of olive oil to a pan. Add the onions and garlic, then heat on low. When the onions have softened, add in the tomatoes. Sauté everything together until the tomatoes have started to break down and are fully warmed through.
Add salt and pepper, then add in the condiments. Just a squeeze of mustard (about a teaspoon) and gochujang (again, about a teaspoon). Stir it all well to combine.
Turn off the heat, and let the sauce cool slightly, then add it to a plastic cup and blend it with your immersion blender. Taste it to see if you need to add anything!
Add the puréed sauce back to the pan and turn the heat on low. Add in the goat cheese and combine it all. Then add the pasta noodles directly from the water into the pan, embracing any pasta water that comes along with them!
