“An amazingly creamy and full bodied tomato sauce, that is worth the extra mile required to make it”.

• 1 kg can plum tomatoes, inc. juice
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• ¾ cups olive oil
• ½ cup fresh basil, minced
• 500 g vermicelli, uncooked
• black pepper, freshly ground

In a saucepan combine the tomatoes, celery, carrots and onion and bring mixture to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes (I simmered the veggies for around 20minutes). Puree mixture and season with salt and pepper.

In a saucepan heat the oil over moderate-high heat until very hot and pour it carefully into the tomato mixture..

Add the basil and 2 cups of water and bring sauce to a boil.

Add vermicelli and cook over moderately high heat, for 4 minutes.

Add 1cup of water and cook the mixture stirring constantly adding more water if the sauce becomes too thick. Cook until pasta is al dente.

Season with pepper and serve.

Note : Very Important, if you reduce this recipe to less than 6 servings, you will find it very difficult to use the hand blender (immersion blender) in the pot when pureeing the sauce, as this type of appliance needs to be sufficiently deep enough to work.

Source : Gourmet : February 1985 – Slightly changed from original

Servings/Yield : 6 servings

Rating : 5 out of 5

Difficulty : Moderately Easy

Cuisine : European : Mediterranean : Italian

Course : Main

Equipment : Hand Mixer

Tags: gourmet, magazine, pasta, recipe, sangiovanni, sauce, spaghetti, vegetarian