Fettuccini with Maria's sauce

Pasta with a tomato based sauce can be comfort food, but for us it is more. It is more like centring food. We don't have pasta when we can't think of anything else, we have it when we need it. Maria will say, "I think I feel like pasta tonight," which is code for saying, let's have food that reminds us who we are.

When we left Barwon Heads over two months ago we loaded the van freezer with some goodies from our chest freezer at home, which included some pork mince from Koallah Farm from where we regularly order meat. Yesterday at the Mullum Farmers' Market, Maria spotted a stall with some good looking fresh tomatoes, so the pieces came together ...

In our delineation of duties in our relationship, tomato based pasta is Maria's portfolio :-).

Servings

6 (for the sauce, 2 for now and 4 to freeze or give away)

Time

about 2 hours. 

Equipment I used (main)

• Pan
• Chopping boards and knife
• Saucepan for pasta
• Wooden spoon, tongs for serving
• Grater (for parmesan)

Ingredients

• Oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2x garlic cloves, diced
• 3 sticks celery (chopped) including 'young' leaves which are light green
• 1 x red capsicum (chopped)
• 500g pork mince (we used some from Koallah Farm, but you could use other mince or chicken)
• 4 x generous tbs tomato paste
• Approx 1½  kilograms of fresh tomatoes, chopped. (We got ours from the Mullum Farmers Market but you could use 1 large and 1 small tin of diced tomatoes if you can't get fresh ones)
• 4 x Bay leaves 
• Mixed herbs (generous tbs) (We had to use dried but use fresh if you can.)
• Pepper and salt
• Grated parmesan 
• Tabasco sauce (to taste)
• Fettuccini (100g per person)

Method

Sauce

1. Heat oil in the pan and gently sauté onion and garlic.
2. Add salt and pepper
3. Add celery (sticks, not leaves) and capsicum and fry for a few minutes and move to one side of the pan.
4. Add the mince and brown, with some more salt and pepper to taste.
5. When browned combine with onion mix.
6. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and stir until combined.
7. Add bay leaves, celery leaves and mixed herbs.
8. Simmer for 1½ hours with lid slightly ajar.

Pasta

1. Bring plenty of salted water to a rapid boil
2. Add pasta and stir regularly to keep pasta from sticking together.
3. Remove at while still slightly firm to avoid overcooking.