Lacking creative inspiration? Just make sauce!

By notoriouslysinglegirl, March 2, 2015

It’s Sunday and raining in the city of angels! For weeks I’ve been lacking inspiration and putting a self imposed writers block on myself…..

I tried a few things to get through it: dancing, singing, running, meditating at the Silver Lake reservoir, trying to date an artist and not even watching a series of artistic creative movies on Amazon could break it ( Whiplash, Frida, The Book Of Life)!

So what’s an Italian Single Girl to do but make some gravy aka tomato sauce! It’s literally locked into any Italian girls DNA… Well mine at least! Cooking always helps me to break through that creative belt I inflict on myself! It somehow kicks in that creative part of my brain that likes to sleep, especially on rainy days!

Recipe in case it’s not in your DNA:

1 can of peeled tomatoes ( I like to use San Marzano)

Stick them all into a food processor until well puréed! I love my food processor!

2-3 garlic cloves crushed
1/2 onion chopped
Olive oil ( maybe 1-2 tablespoons… I just eyeball it!)

In a big pot or Dutch oven add olive oil, garlic and onions. Sauté until soft but not brown about a couple of minutes. Then add the puréed tomatoes. A few sprigs of basil along with 1/2 cup of red wine… ( again… I’m eyeballing the wine) then salt and pepper to taste! I did also add 1 tsp of tomato paste… Up to you!

Simmer the sauce for about 45 minutes. In some Italian families it seemed like the sauce needed to be cooking all day! Every 5 minutes or so.. Make sure you stir the sauce, and if you find it getting a bit too thick add 1/2 cup of water to it!

Enjoy with some pasta! Or make a lasagna with it like I did!

A special note: yes you can use fresh tomatoes…. And stew them for hours… But who really has all that time!

Buona Domenica! And Happy Writing!