Bowtie Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Amy and Nako did it again....they gave me a bunch of fresh tomatoes; too many for just salads so I knew I had to make some spaghetti sauce. Tomatoes and fresh basil from the plant Cindy gave me. When I went outside to cut some basil, I noticed that the plant was comatose.  Someone neglected to give it some water. I immediately did CPR and watered it....waited about an hour. I am happy to report, it made a full recovery.

I started out sauteing some shallots, garlic and leeks in a little butter and lots of olive oil.  I then added the chopped basil ( a bunch ), about 10 tomatoes (peeled and chopped).  I seasoned the sauce with coarse sea salt and pepper. After tasting the sauce, I thought it was a bit too sour so I poured some Mirin sauce. I overdid it that it got to be too sweet. I went to my disorganized pantry and looked for something I could add to take away the sweetness. My eyes settled on a can of olives. I ended up adding the whole can of chopped olives.  I was still not happy with the outcome so I got some rice wine vinegar and poured some in and decided to add chili flakes.  It was tasting better at this point but I wanted it to be less sweet and more salty. I opened the refrigerator and saw my tub of feta cheese. Things are always better with feta, don't you think?  That just about did it!

The result was a very good tomato sauce; a bit salty, sweet, and spicy.  Sandi was willing to sacrifice and go off her diet just to please me. What a friend indeed.

I had some left over which I delivered to my tomato supplier, the Nakasatos.