Katie Kay's Kitchen: Team 2's Famous Pasta Sauce

My office had an event at Sur la Table where we split into 2 teams and in an Iron Chef-like competition, created our own 3-course meals. Guess whose team won? Mine! We were graded on several factors including cleanliness, originality, and taste. Even though we may have permanently ruined a frying pan, I think our attempt to clean it up really endeared us to the cooking staff.
We made pesto-stuffed chicken, pasta with marinara sauce, and something else that slips my mind right now (this was almost a year ago). I'll try to re-create the stuffed chicken with Matt and share that recipe with you some other time. I prepared this pasta dish tonight to carbo-load for the Houston Aramco Half Marathon tomorrow. Wish me luck, and I hope you give this original recipe a try!
Team 2's Famous Pasta Sauce

1 onion, diced

4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1 8oz package mushrooms, sliced

1 15oz can crushed tomatoes

1 28oz can whole tomatoes, broken up into large pieces

1/4 cup whipping cream

Fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano

Fresh basil and grated parmesan for topping

Saute onions in olive oil until transparent and add minced garlic and pinch of salt. Cook for a few more minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, rosemary, thyme and oregano. You can add fresh herbs still attached to their stems. The leafy parts will eventually cook off and you can remove the stems before serving. In a separate saucepan, saute mushrooms until brown, then add to tomato sauce.

Simmer sauce for at least 30 minutes until runny liquid has cooked away and fresh herbs are starting to disappear from their stems. I cooked mine for about an hour and a half. The longer the better!

Pour cream in a small bowl and gradually add several spoonfuls of hot tomato mixture. Whisk continuously to temper the cream so it does not curdle when added to the hot tomato sauce. Once this is done, add bowl of cream mixture to the hot tomato sauce and whisk to combine. Don't forget to remove stems from herbs!

Serve with your favorite pasta and top with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.