Tomato, Pesto and Mushroom Sauce

I love those moments when impromptu ingredients come together for a perfectly scrumptious meal.  This recipe was created on the fly, using leftovers. I pulled out the last bit of mushrooms and cooked pasta I had in the fridge, along with my homemade Sage Walnut Pesto. Then I grabbed some garlic cloves, a carton of passata, vinegar and presto! A simple, rich, earthy tasting meal was born in about 15 minutes.

Now technically, my version was not vegetarian. I had just cooked a bacon sandwich for my daughter and used the drippings to start the sauce, which of course added a bit more depth to the flavour.  I've started keeping a small jar of drippings next to the stove for such creations and topped up the pan with a couple teaspoons. Obviously, if a meat free form is preferred, substituting oil would work just as well. 

My plan was to make a simple pasta sauce, which I do starting with garlic.  I tend to skip onions because nobody in the house likes them in their sauce (unless a blitz them in the food processor with the tomatoes and no one's the wiser). But I didn't feel like having extra dishes to clean so I just went with garlic.  So I started with frying the chopped mushrooms in the drippings, then added the garlic.  I poured in some passata (which is sieved tomatoes, a lot like canned crushed tomatoes in America) and watched it sizzle and decided to add some vinegar.  I've been using and loving sherry vinegar lately so that's what I pulled from the pantry. Finally, I threw in a couple dollops of pesto and stirred in crumbled feta.

Wow, what a result! I will be sharing this recipe with my customers at the markets who buy my  pestos. So easy, so tasty and so adaptable.  If mushrooms are not your thing, try switching up the veggies.  And the richness of the sauce makes it equally useful atop chicken, pork or beef.  Give it a try and, please, let me know what you think. Happy eating!

Tomato, Pesto and Mushroom Sauce

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil, or fat drippings
50g mushrooms, sliced (add more if you love mushrooms)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
150g tomatoes chopped or passata
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Sage Walnut Pesto
50g feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sage Walnut Pesto
25g fresh sage leaves (large handful)
25-30g fresh spinach (large handful)
15g walnut halves
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
30-40ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Make the pesto. I usually use equal parts sage and spinach, but for a milder, less "sagey" flavour, use more spinach. Combine all ingredients, except oil, in a food processor and blitz until pureed. Then with motor running, pour olive oil in a steady stream. Taste for seasoning and intensity of flavour and add more oil for a thinner pesto. Store leftover pesto in fridge with a thin layer of olive oil over top for up to 2 weeks, or transfer to a freezer bag and store for several months.
2. Heat a large pan to medium high and add the fat drippings or oil. Add mushrooms, fry 3 minutes; add garlic, fry 30 seconds. Pour in passta or chopped tomatoes and vinegar and fry another 2-3 minutes, stirring a few times. Turn heat down to a simmer for the final minute.
3. Stir in pesto, cheese and salt. Allow cheese to melt slightly, then remove from heat. 
4. If serving with pasta, add cooked pasta to pan and stir to combine.  If using as a sauce for meat, serve immediately.