Linda's Fire Roasted, Honey Balsamic Tomato Sauce - Serve On Pasta With Chopped Kalamata Olives

Serve this sauce over your favorite pasta and garnish with kalamata olives and chopped parsley

Follow Foods For Long Life on FACEBOOK !

One Final Recipe from the Visit
I've been featuring recipes that my children prepared during their visit. The first one was my daughter-in law's Garlic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing and the second was my son's slow cooked Red Bell Pepper Sauce which I love to serve on vegan apple sage sausages. Today I'm going to share my daughter Linda's Fire Roasted, Honey Balsamic Tomato Sauce. 
She made it for me last year when I visited her in Minneapolis. I came home and tried to duplicate it and didn't quite do it justice. So during her recent visit, I took much better notes so that I could share it with you. For those of you who avoid honey, you may try making it with agave but I think the honey is key in this recipe as it pairs up so well with balsamic vinegar.


About Servings
I always struggle when I list how many servings a dish makes. Where a pasta or veggie recipe might be just a side dish for a meat eater, a pasta or veggie dish is going to be the main attraction for a vegetarian. So the vegetarian serving needs to be bigger. I get really annoyed at recipes that say they serve 4 only to find that they barely serve 2. So when I list a serving, it's usually a real serving!
When you look at the back of a box of pasta, it calls 2 ounces a serving. That would mean that 1 pound of pasta serves 8 people. If I ever served 8 family members only 1 pound of pasta, they would expect several more courses to follow! (Our family definitely does not fear the carb). So for this dish, I'm compromising and saying that 1 pound of pasta serves 6 even though I know the standard is 8 and in reality, 4 hungry people could polish off a pound of pasta without breaking a sweat! In any case, this is enough sauce to serve with a pound of pasta and the number of servings you get out of that is entirely up to you. Just enjoy!

My daughter, Linda, preparing the ingredients

After cooking the onions and garlic, push them to the edge.
Add balsamic vinegar and cook it down a bit

Then add honey 

Cook honey briefly until it bubbles and cooks down a little

Then add herbs and stir everything together

Add fire roasted tomatoes, stir, cover and cook

Linda's Fire Roasted, Honey Balsamic Tomato Sauce
[Enough for 1 pound of pasta, 6 servings]
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup yellow onion, chopped 
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon raw, local honey
2 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
28 ounce can Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 pound of cooked whole grain pasta
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
18 or more kalamata olives, chopped


Heat oil to medium low heat in a Dutch oven or sauce pan and sauté onions for about 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. 
Push onions and garlic to the edges making a whole in the center of the pan.
Drop balsamic vinegar into the center of the pan and cook it down for about a minute. Don't let it get too dry.
Add honey over the reduced balsamic vinegar. Let it cook down about a minute until it bubbles and reduces slightly.
Add basil, oregano and black pepper and stir everything together.
Add crushed tomatoes and salt to taste. Add a few tablespoons of water to the can and swirl around to get the rest of the sauce. Add to pan.
Bring to a low boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes stirring every 15 minutes.
If sauce seems too thin, remove the cover during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
While the sauce is simmering, prepare pasta according to directions.
Spoon sauce over pasta and top with chopped kalamata olives and fresh parsley.
Serve immediately.


Per serving (sauce only): 94.8 calories, 2.3 g fat, 0.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g protein, 16.2 g carbohydrates and 0.5 g dietary fiber.


Per serving (sauce, pasta and olives): 371 calories, 5.2 g fat, 0.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 9.7 g protein, 71.4 g carbohydrates and 8.5 g dietary fiber.