Balsamic Vinegar revamps Pasta Sauce!

I’m so happy, I’ve discovered a minor variation on my stock pasta sauce recipe, which I have used so many times I was starting to get bored of it, and it is now officially revamped. It’s amazing what a difference in taste there is just by adding one or two new ingredients.

I was leafing through Marcella Hazan’s ‘Marcella’s Kitchen’ and side by side on the page were a recipe for a tomato sauce with rosemary and balsamic vinegar and one for a tuna and red pepper sauce. I love rosemary for its clean spiky aroma and have just started trying it out in a pasta sauce with bacon (see a post last week for the recipe). My usual tuna recipe had tomato and thyme in, but I thought I’d take Marcella’s tomato sauce recipe, add my tuna on top and see how it went. Well I loved it, a tickle to the tastebuds which have been sadly understimulated recently, the kids ate marginally more than usual, hurray! So with this scientific try out I deem the recipe to be successful enough to pass on to you all.

Penne with Tuna, Tomato, Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar

For 450g/1lb pasta

8 tablespoons olive oil
3 or 4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
450g/1lb tinned tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tin of tuna drained

Put the olive oil, thinly sliced garlic and rosemary sprigs in a frying pan over a medium heat. When the garlic starts sizzling add the tomatoes, with salt and pepper and cook for 10-12 minutes.

When the pasta is just cooked – really al dente – drain and put back in the pan and toss with the sauce over the heat for 1 minute. Add the tuna, stir, then off the heat stir in the balsamic vinegar and serve immediately.

I wondered whether the balsamic vinegar might be too much for the kids, but the flavour isn’t at all intrusive, just blends into a warm, mellow robustness.