Fire roasted tomatoes are very nice

The other week my grandmother was in the hospital. Knee replacement and rehab. She was out of the house for a while, about a week and a half. My grandfather was all alone. My mother came up to me and gave me a real nice suggestion. Why don't I whip him up a dinner and bring it over and spend some time? I agreed with it and thought about it. What do I make? That was the biggest problem. My mom is no chef. But she knows his tastes. She told me he likes pasta and sausage.
"Cool. I can work with that.", I thought. I love those foods too.

I went to work on an idea. I've been inspired recently by Spanish food and Mexican food. I love Mexican and Spanish food a ton. Salsa is just so versatile. I was planning on carrying on that spanish flair into this meal. But how? Then it hit me, fire roasted tomatoes.

I keep my cooking real simple. Sure I could of actually roasted my own tomatoes but theres also a stop and shop right around the corner. I went there and I got some cans of "Hunts Fire Roasted Tomatoes, diced." 3 of the 14 ounce cans. I figured this was enough and they were on sale. 4.50 for all 3 cans, not bad. I also picked up a can of fire roasted green chilies. A small one. About 6 ounces. I figure tomatoes and chilies go well together. Lets go with that. I then picked up a container of linguini. I got a package of spicy Italian sausage. I buy it ground up. No sense in paying extra for the links, you get less realistically and you spend more. I'm all about the bargains. I have herbs and what not at home. Didn't need to worry about that. I then thumbed through the produce area and picked up a nice orange pepper. I also found a nice sized sweet onion. I figured I was set on ingredients. Cashed out and went home.

I got a game plan. I was going to use 2 cans of tomatoes after I drained the liquid. Then I used the 3rd can and dumped it into a small blender. I blended it up real good, came out to be like a smokey tomato paste. Perfect. Took that paste and dumped it into a big ol' sauce pot. With the other tomatoes. I put that on a low heat. Added some garlic. Maybe a teaspoon or two, garlic can go with nearly anything in the right doses. I figured it won't hurt. I also added some oregano and basil to the mix. Can't tell exactly how much but proximately a tea spoon or so of each. Enough to taste it. I go by taste mostly. I'm really guilty of that. I then opened the chilies and poured them in. I then took the pepper and cut it up. Diced it really. Little pepper cubes went right into the pot as well. Same with the onion. Used about half an onion.

While that was going on. I also had my sausage cooking next to it. I used a dash of smoked peprika with black pepper on it as well as some butter. Butter makes everything better. Also that smoked paprika helps promote a nice smokey flavor. Use a little and the smoked flavor will shine through rather than the paprika flavor. Also was cooking a pot of linguini.

After the sausage was cooked I then lifted it out of its fatty oils with a spatula and dabbed it down a bit with some paper towels. Then into the pot it goes. Like everything else. After the pasta was done i then mixed everything together. A big pot is a good pot. I really love big pots. I wish I had more of them. Then it was serving time. I put it in some contained it brought it over.

So it went amazing. Far better than I actually imagined. The chilies and tomatoes made a nice smokey sauce, not too acidic. Full of flavor. Unfortunately the pepper didn't bring much to the table. The onions did however. I could skip the pepper, they're pretty pricey around here. Wouldn't harm anything if it was skipped. The sausage kept the heat going with the spice. Basically it got a lot of praise from my family and grand father. Good stuff. Took about 45min to 60min to make. All the prep. work and cook time included.

Recap of recipe:

3 cans of 14 ounce Fire Roasted Tomatoes (drain 2, blend 1)
1 can of 6 ounces Fire Roasted Green Chilies
Teaspoon of diced garlic clove
Teaspoon or less of oregano and basil (taste and see)
Black pepper
Dash of smoked peprika
Half of a Sweet Vidalia Onion
Enough sausage for how ever many people your serving.
A box of pasta
and the optional pepper of choice (i used orange, didn't help much)

Went great, super easy to make. I would highly recommend it.