Quick and Simple Red Sauce

I wanted a very simple red sauce to go with my plain and simple ravioli filling. Since I made a white sauce yesterday to go with the sun-dried tomato filled ravioli I went with tomato sauce today. A fluid green pesto would have also been a good choice but I wanted tomato sauce tonight. This sauce takes under 20 minutes and has a big tomato flavor due to the simplicity.

Quick and Simple Red Sauce
Makes 28 ounces – enough for ¼ of the ravioli dough

Ingredients:

14 ounces tomato sauce
14 ounces diced canned tomato
¼ teaspoon thyme, dried
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
¼ cup fresh basil, torn or julienned
flaked sea salt for garnish - optional

Directions:

Combine the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and thyme and cook for 10 – 15 minutes. Add kosher salt and black pepper to taste.

Use this sauce as the bed for the ravioli. Place the sauce on the bottom of the plate and put the ravioli on top. Top with fresh basil and little flaked sea salt.

Nutritional information (for the entire recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 168.24
Calories From Fat (8%) - 13.06

Total Fat - 1.55g
Saturated Fat - 0.22g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2381.89mg
Potassium - 2264.62mg
Total Carbohydrates - 37.2g
Fiber - 10.89g
Sugar - 27.32g
Protein - 8.84g

Comments:

This sauce is intentionally simple so that the flavor of the filling can shine. I didn’t want the filling to get lost in the sauce. Since tomato can be a big flavor I kept it light by using it sparingly in the bottom of the dish.

Fresh basil is a classic to combine with tomato and worked perfectly here. Flaked sea salt as a garnish adds nice textural contrast.