Exam Intelligence

This is a great quick sauce made from real tomatoes and herbs (fresh is best, but dried will do if that’s all that you have available). You can add some meat or even a tin of tuna to it if you like, or have it as a vegetarian dish. This should be enough for two but If you double the amount then you can make a pasta bake the next day with the left overs - I’ll tell you how in a following recipe.

You’ll need:

• 4 medium tomatoes (or a handful of cherry tomatoes)
  
• Some white wine (or veg or chicken stock) or failing that; tap water!
• 1 small clove of garlic
• If possible, fresh basil and flat leaf parsley
• 1 fresh chili. (If you can’t get this use a dried one or chili flakes or chili powder… or even a bit of chili sauce!) Add less if you don’t want it too hot.
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (To help the medicine go down? I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist - Ed.)
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese. Here I really wouldn’t recommend using the dried stuff from the container - I think you are better off without it!
• Pasta of your choice. I don’t know how much pasta you like to eat or what type you are using so enough for two people.
  

Principle/Method

1. Put your pasta on to boil. Keep an eye on it while you make the sauce. If it’s ready before the sauce don’t worry, drain it, run it under cold water and let it rest on the side for a bit. If you are using fresh pasta, don’t bother putting it in the boiling water until the sauce is made as it usually only takes about 4 mins to cook anyway!
2. Crush or finely chop the clove of garlic and start to gently fry it in the olive oil over a low heat in a saucepan.
3. Roughly chop the tomatoes into chunks and add it to the hot oil. You can now turn the heat to a medium level.
4. Add a glass of the liquid (the wine or the stock or the water)
   
5. Let it bubble and stir occasionally.
6. Add the teaspoon of the sugar and the chili and then add some seasoning. Don’t worry if it doesn’t taste too rich yet, it will develop flavour as it concentrates down. Be careful not to add too much salt before the sauce has reduced or it will taste too salty in the final sauce.
7. Allow the sauce to reduce to at least half what it originally was.  It will thicken as it does this.
8. When you’re happy with the thickness and seasoning, grate a little parmesan into it and roughly tear or chop a handful of the fresh herbs and stir it all into the sauce and turn the heat off.
9. Add your sauce to the drained pasta (or your drained pasta to the sauce - whichever has more room in the pan) and mix it together.
10. Serve it with some more parmesan grated over the top.
    

Buon appetito!

(PS: For the eagle eyed person who spotted chili spelled with one L and thought it was incorrect…it can in fact be spelled both ways!)

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