Recipe: Cherry Tomato Compote

A few weeks ago I had a bumper crop of fresh and juicy cherry tomatoes, so I decided to experiment one Saturday when Brian wasn't around and make myself some fresh chunky tomato sauce.  It turned out really well, but was so think it was less like a sauce and more like a jam or compote (yet still delicious on pasta).  So, I thought I would share my very basic and easy recipe. 

The only thing I would change would be to remove the skins from the cherry tomatoes by putting a little X in the bottom of them and dropping them into a pot of boiling water for maybe 30 seconds then tossing them in ice water.  After you do that, they should peel easily.  I didn't think of this beforehand, but some people may not like the skins in the sauce.  I got over that quite quickly however.  

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 Yellow Onion, chopped
2 cups Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half (can also use fresh regular sized tomatoes, chopped)
1 tbsp. Fresh Thyme, minced
1 tbsp. Fresh Oregano, minced
1/2 cup White Wine
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

So, it's pretty simple, I just prepped all the produce and herbs, then sauteed the onion in the olive oil until the onions started turning translucent.  

Then I added the tomatoes and let them cook down a bit.

Next came the white wine, which poured in and  then let cook off for a few minutes to take the raw alcohol flavor out of it and let the flavors meld.  Then I added the balsamic and let that reduce a it as well.  Finally I put the fresh herbs in and stirred everything around right before serving it on top of angel hair pasta.

This was totally good.  I'm going to have to try it again sometime.  Sorry if my measurements are a bit weird.  I tend to just pour this in and dump that in.  Since it's not baking and don't have to worry about messing much up, I just do as a please and play with the seasonings as I go.  Oh, and you should put some salt and pepper in after you saute the onions, oops!