Sauce Viktor

Makes ½ gallon

Sauce Viktor goes back to the first days of the café when the crowds were small and we regularly served crepes. My seven cheese crepe manicotti needed a distinctive sauce and I happened to have some red bell peppers and added them to my standard tomato sauce. Our director of music, Viktor, made such a fuss over it that I named it after him. The Cento® Italian style Tomatoes are a must and while you could roast your own red peppers the ones in the jar work just as well if not better. It produces a sauce with a gorgeous red color and is so good it could easily be mistaken for soup.

• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1 cup onion - diced
• ½ cup carrot – diced
• ½ cup celery - diced
• 6 cloves garlic - minced
• 2-20 oz Canned Cento® Italian style Tomatoes with juice
• 1 jar Roasted Red Peppers – chopped and drained
• ½ cup Dry Italian Red Wine preferably from Tuscany
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp good quality olive oil

Melt olive oil and butter over high heat in a stock pot
Add onions, carrots and celery with 1 tsp salt and pepper and stir
reduce to medium and cook until soft – about 5 minutes
Add garlic and cook additional minute
Add tomatoes, peppers and sugar and stir, breaking up tomatoes with spoon
Cover and simmer for an hour stirring occasionally
Remove form heat and cool
When cooled puree the sauce in batches until smooth
Pass puree through a food mill or strainer for a smoother sauce
Return to heat and adjust season with salt pepper and olive oil
Stir and serve