SALSA DI POMODORI

Take a dozen plum tomatoes and slice them lengthways as though they were your enemy. Fasten them into a lidded pot and heat for ten minutes.

Chop an onion without tears.
Dice a carrot without regret.
Shard a celery stick as though its flutes and grooves where the indentations of your past.

Add to the tomatoes and cook unlidded for as long as it takes them to yield.

Throw in salt, pepper and a twist of sugar.

Pound the lot through a sieve or a mouli or a blender.

Remember – they are vegetables, you are the cook.

Return to a soft flame and lubricate with olive oil. Add a spoonful at a time, stirring like an old witch, until you achieve the right balance of slippery firmness.

Serve on top of fresh spaghetti. Cover with rough new parmesan and cut basil. Raw emotion can be added now.

Serve. Eat. Reflect.

This recipe is from The PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson and is my strongest takeaway from the book. It made nothing short of good sense for me to simply cook the recipe and see if it tastes as good as it reads.

Slicing, chopping, cooking and blending brought me to this result. Following the recipe I also added a few modifications, some ham, chilli and more spices. The result was nothing short of brilliant; tasty, lots of vegetables, and also very little sugar (compared to getting a ready-made pasta sauce).

I cant help but wish there was an entire cook book of recipes written in such a way as it did a lot to inspire me and made me realise this project.

Richard