Ralph Kramden

My wife has an intestinal condition known as "Diverticulosis", and her doctor has recommended that she alter he diet to avoid many things with seeds. This means she has had to give up many things she loves: poppy seeds, strawberries, raspberries, and worst of all, tomatoes. It makes eating at Italian restaurants almost impossible - unless the restaurant guarantees that it strains its tomato sauce, she can't have her favorite dish - veal parmesan.

(An aside - my header says "judaica". For the benefit of people who don't know - veal parmesan is NOT KOSHER. Salach lani - forgive me.)

So I have taken it upon myself to learn how to make good veal and chicken parmesan at home. There is a canned tomato sauce that is strained - Hunts Tomatoes Sauce. But you have to spice it up a bit to make a really good tomato sauce for pasta or parmesans. Here's what I do:

Crush and dice 2 cloves of garlic. Dice half a medium-sized onion.
Saute the garlic and onion in some olive oil for a couple of minutes in a 2-quart saucepan.
Add 2 15-oz. cans of Hunts "Tomatoes" sauce
Add half a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of oregano and a teaspoon of basil
simmer over low-to-medium heat, stirring occasionally.

You'll notice if you save leftovers in the refrigerator overnight, it's better the second day!