Homemade Tomato Sauce with Fava Beans (The Beans So Nice, You Shell Them Twice!)

I am a huge fan of the easy, ten minute tomato sauce a la Jamie Oliver. His recipe is brilliant and can be used as pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or tomato soup. Rad, right?

I don’t strain it… I just blend it together and use all of it (I also add some thai chili in with the garlic at the beginning), but you get the idea. Anyway, I usually always use this method for tomato sauce… but not last night!

Yesterday I realized the fridge had accumulated a large number of Roma tomatoes. I’d been to the farmers market and Fairway and ended up with a nice little stash of the guys. Chef B’friend also remembered we had acquired a good amount of fava beans and had a brilliant idea. Time to make a vegan pasta dish! (Check that your pasta doesn’t contain egg… some do. If you’re not worried about the egg, then use whatever you want.)

How to make Chef B’Friend’s Ziti and Homemade Tomato Sauce with Fava Beans:

Cook Your Food, Dammit!

About to make a fierce one-egg omelet with some spinach, asparagus, mushroom, onion, and some grated cave-aged cheese. Pretty much all of the ingredients are from my local Farmers’ Market. Eat local. Why? Because it’s good for you and the responsible thing to do as a person.

This is my boyfriend. He is a genius and knows so much about food. He’s really good at cooking, and I am learning from his mad culinary skills. We don’t diet. We cook healthy food that is so delicious, I don’t want to eat out.

This is a healthy, homemade pizza. The dough is a combination of semolina flour, unbleached flour, yeast, water, and honey. The pizza sauce is THE EASIEST TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE EVER. Salad on top? YES. Are those pepperonis I see? NO. Those are zucchinis pretending to be pepperonis, you fool.

I’ll cook my dinner ahead of time and take it to work with me. I try not to eat past 9pm, but it’s not something I live or die by. I will say that the cuter the tupperware, the more likely I am to use it. Shallow? Yes. Does it keep me healthy? Yes.

Chopped rosemary, garlic, and chili. I grow the rosemary and the chilies from the windows of my Manhattan apartment. If I can do it, you can do it. Great way to know exactly where your food comes from. Now, this trifecta of awesomeness is going into the oven with some sweet potatoes and EVOO to make crispy rosemary potato wedges. YUM!