What a sauce

By Paul Fulford on April 15, 2008 6:32 PM | Permalink

Good chefs can spot bargains and turn them into fabulous feasts...then there's me.

At just a quid, a big bag of decent quality tomatoes - probably over 3lbs of the things - seemed like great value at the Bull Ring open market on Saturday.

I proudly took them home, cut them in half, sprinkled on a little garlic, sugar and salt, splashed on a bit of red wine vinegar and annointed them with olive oil before slow-roasting them as I watched the racing on Channel Four, cursing when my selection staggered in last at Kempton.

The tomatoes smelled and looked wonderful when they emerged from the oven and I whizzed them in the food processor with a bit of water to create a rich, chunky sauce for pasta.

Just the thing to eat with pasta this evening, I thought as I arrived home later than usual from the office today.

Wrong: the sauce was more bitter than an Arsenal fan who's just watch his (or her) team knocked out of the Champions League by a dodgy penalty.

I suspect I should have roasted them less or thrown in a few uncooked tomatoes to mitigate the intense flavour. But any hints on how to make an edible roast tomato sauce will be gratefully received.

The stale cream cake which I ate instead was scant consolation for tonight's disaster. But I'm lunching at Purnell's tomorrow so there's a good meal looming.