Thai Spaghetti

I am so excited about this recipe. It's one of those things where I had a lot of tomatoes and Thai basil from the garden and needed to figure out something to do with it all. So I thought I'd give a Thai spaghetti sauce a try and it turned out unbelievably good. The trick is to use a lot of garlic (crushed, not minced) and a lot of Thai basil.

3 lbs. tomatoes, any kind
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed with a garlic press
1 white or yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 thai red chile, minced or 1/4-1/2 tsp. crushed red chili flakes
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. shoyu, tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp. more of sea salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper (or black)
1 bunch Thai basil (about 4 large sprigs or 1/3 c.), roughly chopped or torn

This time I had marglobe and green zebra tomatoes.

1) To prepare the tomatoes, remove the cores, chop them roughly and puree them in a blender. If you really want to you can take the time to remove the skins but I wouldn't bother. Set the pureed tomatoes aside.

2) In a large pot preheat the oil and add the garlic and Thai chile and let them saute for about 1 minute. Add the onion and 1/2 tsp. sea salt and saute until the onion is softened, about 4 more minutes.

3) Add the tomato paste and shoyu and stir around to dissolve the tomato paste.

4) Add all of the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and reduce to a low boil (a little more than a simmer) and let it bubble for 40 minutes or up to 1 hour, depending on how thick you want your sauce to be. Stir the sauce occasionally to prevent burning.

Use the sauce over angel hair pasta, spaghetti, linguini or udon noodles. This makes enough sauce for 1 lb. of pasta, about 2 1/2 to 3 cups.