Spooned over a warm piece of toast, this sauce is every bit as filling as it is beautiful.
This is an impressive and different technique of arranging the different ingredients in which they are cooked, or stewed. Rather than cook a whole onion in tomato sauce, think of it as the primordial soup that the Egyptians would have used for sustenance when the Nile was dried out. They cooked two different onions, along with spinach, in the same pot. I also prefer when the fire is low and dark, and I call this tasting of twilight. Firelighting heightens the contrast.
To this tomato sauce (homemade or store-bought, if you prefer) I add broth (enough to cover and make the sauce, but not thick enough to be soupy), chopped pancetta or bacon, diced tomato, halved green bell pepper, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. I pare the rest of the ingredients down (scraps or grated Parmesan and parmesan for texture) and drop it into the pot of very hot, low-flame-cooked onions. The result is not a mélange but a lovely, cooling sauce. Use this on a salad or wrap to fill small slices of thick-sliced grilled pepper, with lemon, capers, and toasted bread. Or reheat it and serve over a bean salad.
Photo
Ingredients
- 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced (I do this by corseting the slices of sliced onion and tossing them in olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper)
- 1 cup white beans (I like and cannot find cannellini, black or pinto)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 4 ounces pancetta or bacon, diced
- 3 or 4 tomatoes, diced
½ pound spinach