We use tomatoes in many if not most of our meals. This makes a good tomato sauce and a useful thing to have around the kitchen. It is not surprising that we published our Marinara Extra Sauce as one of the first recipes, but sometimes you just want to eat a whole bowl of it, and our Tomato Soup is our way of doing that.
A Marinara sauce is a simple type of tomato sauce, typically made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and Italian herbs. Tomato sauce is more complex often including beef, pork, chicken, or fish and cooked over a longer time frame. Our version of the Marinara sauce is a little more complex than typical because we add extra vegetables, and hence our name of “Marinara Extra”.
Our family’s favourite pasta sauce is this version of a Basil Pesto. In the spring we plant many basil and parley plants. It is wonderful to have fresh basil available when your tomatoes start to ripen and fresh parsley to add to salads. When the growing season comes to a close, we are busy making our Basil Pesto in bulk.
Red Peppers are the main attraction in this pesto sauce. For your convenience, we choose jarred peppers, and this is a good way to start. During the late summer months, an abundance of fresh peppers come to market and you may choose to start with those. Using your barbecue, or oven, you can roast the peppers yourself. Let them cool and peel the skins. You can even skip the roasting and use whole raw peppers. We have used jarred, freshly roasted, and raw peppers, in red, orange, and yellow colours. All the combinations and permutations have resulted in a delicious sauce.
This simplified recipe was designed to take one guacamole and make a quick and simple dip, or spread. Avocados are versatile because they freeze well. This means you can create a Guacamole base and refrigerate or freeze later use. As a precaution to avoid oxidation, we recommend you use lemon juice. Use the juice one whole lemon per avocado.