Valentine's Dinner

T and I decided yo celebrate V-Day tonight. We;re sending Boo to grandma and grandpa's for a few hours. We're doing dinner at home. We're going to have Tri-color Farfalle with Basil Merlot Pasta Sauce. This will be served with Bratwurst (we don't have italian sausage...lol). I've got some Asiago Garlic bread and dipping oil as well. We have White Merlot Wine and Rose Table Wine (the one from the previous post).

I already made my pasta sauce. I'm letting it sit hoping that it will help to bring out the flavors. I think it's mighty good myself. I got the idea from a pasta sauce at the grocery store. It was called "Napa Valley Zinfandel." After perusing the ingredients label on the back I thought...hmmm...piece of cake. So, today I made my own sauce. I substituted White Merlot for the Zinfandel. I've never had White Merlot before. Well, I did today because I had to taste some when I made my sauce of course. It's good. I could see how it's great for a pasta sauce actually. It adds a touch of sweetness to it without having to add sugar.

Here's what I did for my sauce (very rough translation):

Saute diced onion (one) and minced garlic (oh - I don't know, maybe six or seven cloves). Add canned diced tomatoes (2 cans -mine had basil, garlic, and onion). Throw it in a food processor and puree the hell out of it. I would've left it chunkier if it was just me, but T doesn't like chunks in his food. Taste it. Mmmmm....yummy. Add fresh basil (half a package). I would've added a whole package probably, but I'm saving some to use with those store-bought pizza crusts. Add a bit of fresh parsley (not a whole lot, didn't want to overpower it). Add a tube of tomato paste. If it was just me I would've added less. T likes the rich tomato pastey flavor. Add wine. Several splashes. Sip wine. Mmmm...poor mug of wine. Puree the hell out of the sauce again. Taste. Add more wine to sauce. Puree. Drink wine. Taste sauce. Well, you get the idea.

Anyways, this sauce turned out delicious. Funny this is I remember feeling like I didn't want to pay $6 for a jar of pasta sauce at the store, but when I think through the ingredients did I really save money making it? Nope. I think I spent more...but now I have a bottle of wine and the feeling of a job well done with my sauce.

I would like to have some sort of dessert but haven't figured that part out yet. Oh well...it's still early in the day. I'm glad I got the sauce done now though. All I'll have to do is heat it back up in the sauce pan and tweak it if need be.

You know, this is going to be our first date with Boo gone. Wow. Maybe I'll break out the china.