20 min gourmet

Yes, I know I have been delinquent in my updates. I have a camera card FULL of food pictures but I have been very negligent about getting them on here. I apologize profusely...and I promise to try to be better about getting the info from my head and camera to this blog.

Anyhow, one of my recent favorite activities for the end of the week (after most of what was bought at the grocery has been cooked and/or eaten) has been to open the fridge, look at what is in there and try to figure out what to make. Kind of like a mini Iron Chef, only without the timer, secret ingredients and people yelling at me. And the fact that my hubby pretty much loves anything I make helps. Last week, I opened the fridge and was greeted by a package of grape tomatoes whose expiration time was quickly approaching. Since I hate wasting good food, I had to do something with them. And since I am not a fan of raw grape tomatoes, it couldn't be something as simple as salad. I had a vague memory of watching a Rachael Ray make a tomato sauce recently where she put the tomatoes in a pan till the burst & then smashed them with a potato masher. I couldn't remember any other parts of the recipe so I figured I would challenge myself to make something palatable all on my own. Sometimes, I surprise myself.

What came out was a very versatile sauce that can be used as a topping for fish (as I did the 1st time,), mixed with shrimp for a main dish (as we had last night) or a pasta sauce (which we haven't had yet since we a low carbing it right now but i surmise that it would be AWESOME on a nice cheese ravioli). If you will be using this as a pasta or fish topping (I tried it with pollock - yummy!), put the fish or pasta in to cook before starting the sauce since this is a fast cooking sauce. If having with shrimp, get the cooked, shelled shrimp, remove the tails and set aside til you are ready to add them to the sauce. If you want to get really adventurous, you can also use this as a topping for an omelette.

Ok, I have yapped long enough, here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 package grape tomatoes
3 cloves (or to taste) of garlic finely chopped or pressed (i like using the garlic press since I am lazy)
splash of chicken broth (you can use more or less depending on how loose you want your sauce)
oregano to taste
basil to taste
1tbsp olive oil

Directions
Find a pan with a tight fitting lid
Coat said pan with olive oil and heat over med heat
Add garlic and saute till it softens (about 1 or 2 min)
Add chicken broth to cover bottom of pan, tomatoes, oregano & basil (add broth BEFORE tomatoes to prevent oil splatter and arm pain...trust me on this one)
Cover and walk away for a couple of minutes. If you have a glass top pan, all the better so that you can keep an eye on the tomatoes without lifting the lid. If you have to lift the lid to check the sauce, it's ok too though.
Once tomatoes have burst (yes, you can tell), gently smash them with a potato masher. Leave some larger pieces (you are making a crushed sauce, after all, not puree)
Alternate endings:
if serving as a fish or pasta topping, remove sauce from heat, you are done.
if mixing with shrimp, reduce heat to med-low, pour in shrimp, mix and heat for 2 min (or til shrimp is warm).

Unfortunately, when I went to add the pictures of this, I found that I had not taken any. Guess that means I will have to make this again... But trust me when I tell you that, especially the fish or omelette topping, this looks like something in a gourmet restaurant.

Still kicking myself for not taking pictures...