When Bad Wine Goes Good

For me, one of life's great pleasures is to relax with a glass of red wine and  not just drink it, but thoroughly experience the flavours and aromas. Unfortunately, utter disappointment was to be my fate that night when I took that eagerly-anticipated sip only to discover that this wine is actually kind of  disgusting.

I often hear chefs say or write that if the wine is not good enough to drink, than you shouldn't be cooking with it. I dare to disagree. My beginnings of enhancing the flavour of stews and chilis with wine started with a particularily offensive (and, of course, large)  batch of red wine that I inherited from my father's make your own wine days.

This sauce has become one of my favourite recipes that I use for rejected red wine.  It is ideal for gnocchi and pasta but I have also used it with rice dishes.

Herbed Tomato Sauce

1 can tomatoes with juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp dried thyme
1.5 tsp dired marjoram
1 bay leaf
1.5 tsp pepper
1.2 cup red wine
1/8 cup dried basil
1 tbsp dried parsley

Combine tomatoes, garlic, onion, oregano, thyme, marjoram, bayleaf and pepper in a large pot and bring  to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, stirring opccasionally and cook 30 minutes.  Add wine, basil and parsley and cook 30 minutes longer. Remove bay leaf.