SIMPLE MEALS: THE LAST OF THE SUMMER TOMATO SAUCE

 Cooking every day is cheaper and healthier especially if,  like us,  you have dietary issues.  A repertoire of fast,  easy recipes is  helpful, but so is my freezer.  Certainly I don't always feel like cooking, so I try to make larger amounts of easy to freeze main dishes.  Then, all I have to do is add a starch and some green vegetables, sometimes separately or like last night, all in  one dish.

Good tomatoes fresh off the vine, fresh basil, garlic and onion make some of the best tasting tomato sauce ever.  It also freezes well and last night I pulled out the last of it. 

Also found in the bottom drawer of my freezer was one piece of tuna, small, and one piece of mahi mahi also small.  I defrosted both, cut them into small chunks and marinated them in fresh lemon juice and kosher salt for an hour or so. Then I sauted an onion, added red peppers, garlic and zuchini.  Add tomato sauce and cook until the vegetables are tender.   Because the sauce was already redolent with basil, I didn't add any spices, though if I'd had some fresh basil on hand I'd have added some at the end.
In another pan in a small amount of olive oil I tossed the cubed fish  until almost done then added it to the sauce for a minute or two and served  it over  brown rice pasta from Tinkyada.  This is the best substitute for 'real' pasta that I've had.  It keeps it's 'tooth' and it's place as  the support for a sauce, not being too assertive in taste as are  some of the other gluten free pastas.

Now for a touch of spring.  My hamamelis is finished blooming, but  the bulbs and my Helleborus orientalis, or lenten  roses, are having their time.  I love Helleborus,  but I only grow the easy orientalis that is extremely reliable.