Recipe below: Five-Ingredient Winter Tomato Sauce
When I was about seven or eight I started seeing colors with numbers. A color would jump out at me when I thought of or saw a certain number. Five was red. Eight was forest green. Three was yellow. Seventeen was violet. Eleven was always light green, a pea green. Every number below twenty had a color. Then when I was around 16, all the colors mysteriously went away.
Forty plus years went by with no colors, and then about two months ago they came back. Not all of them, though. So far there are only three. Five is still red, and it’s the strongest by far. That was true long ago as well. It’s a clear, bright red, a tomato red. Three is yellow. Eight is still forest green. But that’s it.
When the colors started flashing again, my first thought was, what’s going on, am I having a stroke? I was a bit scared, but I quickly eased back into it and started to enjoy my colors, hoping they would stay and more would follow.
I tried to think back to when I was young and it all started, wanting to remember if I liked the visions then. It’s hard to describe what they’re like, then and even now. I think back then they were a mixed blessing. I loved the colors sparking in my head, but they also could be intrusive, like when I was supposed to be learning arithmetic and the numbers and colors just created chaos. That is most likely why I never really learned any math in a solid fashion. It didn’t hold me back too much, but I think it might account for why I never measure anything when I’m cooking, unless I need to set a recipe for others to follow.
My colors have returned in time for the new year. I take this as a good sign, maybe for a lively year to come. So here’s a simple five-ingredient winter tomato sauce that starts out with bright red canned tomatoes, a solid number five. They turn a little darker when you cook them, taking them out of that category. I don’t have a number for maroon. I can’t remember if I ever did. But, in any case, the taste is good, smoothed over by butter, sweet onion, and rosemary.
This will make enough for a pound of pasta. I especially like it on ricotta gnocchi or as a sauce for merguez-stuffed peppers. My mom often added peas to this kind of simple sauce. I love that too, as you can see in my photo, and pea green always went with eleven. It would be nice if that came back.
Five-Ingredient Winter Tomato Sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small Vidalia onion, cut into small dice
¼ cup sweet vermouth
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, well chopped, including the juice (I often buy the San Merican brand, which has bright color and a solid mouth feel)
1 long sprig rosemary, the leaves well chopped
Salt and black pepper
Get out a wide shallow pan, and put it over medium heat. Add the butter, and let it warm through. Add the onion, and sauté until it’s soft and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add the sweet vermouth, and let it bubble for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes and the rosemary, and season with salt and black pepper. Turn the heat to medium high, and cook the sauce at a lively bubble for five minutes. Turn off the heat, and let it sit for a few minutes more, just to meld all the flavors. Check for seasoning. The sauce should be fairly loose. If it’s too cooked down, add a splash of water.