Last night, in the midst of crazy crock potting, I tried a new recipe from Pinterest (click here for the original). It was a bit of a juggling act as it feels like you’re making two separate sauces, one of which needs constant stirring. It was fun to finally use my immersion blender! This was delicious, especially with the bit of fresh basil in it. Yum!

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes (about 9 medium)
1 small onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup half & half
2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 pound farfalle or other short cut pasta

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Start the tomato sauce. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Score the bottom of the tomatoes, blanch in the boiling water for about a minute, cool and peel. Discard skins. Roughly chop tomatoes and set aside. In a small saucepan, sweat the minced onion and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium low heat for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes to the onion and garlic. Blend the sauce with an immersion blender to make it thinner and to break down the tomatoes. Cook about 15 minutes until thickened.

While the tomato sauce thickens, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package directions.

While the pasta and tomato sauce are cooking, make the alfredo sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth and cook about 2 minutes, until brown. Whisk in the milk, half & half, and garlic and season with salt & pepper. Continuously whisking, bring to a simmer and cook about 2 minutes until thickened. Fish out the garlic with a slotted spoon and discard. Whisk in the parmesan cheese. The sauce will be very thick, so add 1/3 cup of the hot pasta cooking water to the alfredo sauce to thin it out a bit. Remove from heat.

Drain the pasta and add to the alfredo sauce. Mix the basil into the tomato sauce and add the tomato sauce to the pasta. Mix well.