Whirled together

When I was a kid, I adored leftovers. Stuffing and turkey spread over rolls after Thanksgiving? I'm on it. Pot roast transformed into sandwiches with Miracle Whip and bread? Sold. I even liked casserole dishes like Danish Shepherd's Pie, which exist mostly as an excuse to clean out the pantry and freezer.

My mother encouraged this behavior. She cleverly invented the Smorgasbord Dinner, a meal strung together from leftover pieces of dinners gone by. My sister, Kira, and I were tricked into believing a Smorgasbord Dinner was a rare treat! Perhaps it was. If a dish is delicious once, why not twice?

And if the original dish was sticky, squashy roasted tomatoes, it's practically a Crime Against Everything Culinary and Wonderful not to use leftovers.

My friend Ali agrees with me. She read my last post on roasted tomatoes and quickly shared that she just roasted a batch of her own. She'll soon have a recipe for roasted tomato soup on her blog, Gimme Some Oven. What a clever blog name for a clever gal.

This morning, I transformed my roasted tomatoes into a pasta sauce with only some onion, garlic, cream, and a magic wand of white wine.



Again I say, what's not to love about leftovers? So whipped into a leftover frenzy am I that tomorrow, I may use the rest of this tomato cream sauce to make pizzas. The possibilities are endless and delicious.

Spaghetti with roasted tomato cream sauce
serves 4-6

• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 8 roasted tomato halves
• 1 Tb. extra-virgin olive oil
• 4-8 oz. plain canned tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup white wine
  
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. oregano
• a glug of heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 pound spaghetti noodles
• Parmesan cheese to taste
  

Smooth about a teaspoon of olive oil along the bottom of a cast iron skillet, and place the skillet on medium heat. Finely chop the onion and garlic, and cook them until the onions become translucent. When the onions are almost browned, toss on your roasted tomato halves and the rest of the olive oil.

Let all of your veggies warm thoroughly before you move the tomato halves to a blender. Before you add the onions and garlic, pour the white wine, oregano, and sea salt into the skillet. Stir the mixture for a minute, just long enough for the wine to sop up the last flavors of olive oil and garlic.

Pour the skillet contents, along with the tomato sauce, in the blender and puree the sauce until it's smooth. Return the sauce to your skillet, and turn the heat down low. Stir in a splash of cream and keep the sauce warm.

Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil, and cook the spaghetti for 7-10 minutes. Drain the pasta, toss liberally with the tomato cream sauce, and serve with Parmesan.