So for a very long time I've wanted to be able to make pasta like the nice Italian restaurants do, or like the fancy jars from those delis do. Those nice Italian restaurants make tomato into a whole other food. Usually when I make it at home it tastes more like hot tomato paste. Home-style tomato paste. I had a bit of encouragement from the jars of pasta we got for cheaps at Maggie Beers last year, which were apparently overcooked but actually delicious.
Anyway, last night was stay at home and finally watch Star Trek: Into Darkness night (about three years late). And I had to watch the last 45 minutes of the Hunger Games so it was the perfect night for experimental slow cooking. So I very slowly during the Hunger Games overcooked the onions until they were really brown. Then for the first half of Star Trek I overcooked the tomatoes in the overcooked onions. Smushed up olives and added this nice red wine I found, and then cooked it some more. Until that saucy passata was really thick and brown.
And by golly it tasted like those nice Italian restaurants. Maybe not quite as good as those Maggie Beer pasta jars, but not far off. So I am really happy. I ate so much of it - like three freaking bowls - but there is still leftovers. Which will make for a very good day I think.