Tomato Love: Get Those Tomatoes in Me Belly!

What would YOU do with a box of delicious Red Gold tomatoes?
That's the question our brains have been pondering this week. And we've been inspired by all of your responses.

So many of you mentioned making pasta with your canned tomatoes that we were starting to get a serious craving. It's the weekend, so we wanted to let down our hair a little bit... maybe make this a little bit more of a special occasion dish. But how?

We pulled out a couple of cans of petite diced tomatoes and got to work.
First, we sauteed up some shallots and garlic in a bit of butter and olive oil. We even threw in a pinch of hot pepper flakes for good measure.
When the shallots were starting to turn transluscent, they looked like they were ready for a party. So, we gave them a cup of vodka to swim around in.
When the vodka was reduced by about half, we added those two cans of tomato to the mix. We brought everything to a boil, and then turned the heat down and let things simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
Since we had a bit of time on our hands, we figured we'd put it to good use. So, we ran off to the other end of the kitchen and started up a little side project.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea about us, I'd better clarify. While we're big on flavor over here at Burp! we're pretty short on space. So, when I say the "other side of the kitchen," I mean we took a few sidesteps across the room.

Waiting for us on the other side of the kitchen was a nice ball of ... wait for it... homemade pasta dough. OH yes, boyz and girlz, we do luv us some homemade pasta on the weekend. So, we decided to do it up right. We sliced that pasta dough into some pieces, and started running her through the trusty KitchenAid pasta roller.
After which, we sliced her up into thin strips. Lovely, thin strips that looked suspiciously like fettuccini.
Oh, yeah. Those were some fine noodles. As they came out of the pasta machine, they struck some mighty sexy poses for the camera.
See what I mean?
Of course, we couldn't devote all of our attention to the pasta. We had tomatoes to attend to. While we weren't looking, our petite diced friends had simmered themselves into a nice reduced sauce.
So, we celebrated by slipping our fresh pasta into a nice warm bath.
While the fettuccini soaked, we gave the unsuspecting vodka sauce something to get excited about. A daub of heavy cream, some fresh basil... and a handful of crumbled Wisconsin gorgonzola cheese. *slurp*
The three minute wait for the pasta was almost excrutiating. But, finally, we were ready to slip those noodles into a bowl and cloak them with some of that fantastic, creamy sauce.
This was some seriously good stuff. So, we decided to share.

If you're the measuring sort, here are the specifics:
Vodka Sauce with Gorgonzola Cream


While you're at it, don't forget to sign up to win your own pack of Red Gold Tomatoes HERE. The giveaway ends on Monday, January 26th!



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