In a foodie mood

This last weekend, I cooked my absolute favorite ten-minute pasta sauce for fiatlouis and J. This is a recipe I invented two or three years ago, after having a just fabulous smoked-and-fresh-salmon tomato-cream sauce at the cute Italian place a block from the Dakota Street house. I wanted something that would taste about the same, but only get one pot dirty (no making bechamel!) and not call for ingredients I rarely have (no heavy cream).

So. eruthros's famous ten-minute smoked tomato cream sauce. Put on a pot of water before starting and, if you're swift with the knife, it should be ready about five minutes before whole-wheat pasta has cooked, or about the same time as Boring Pasta.

1 can fire-roasted tomatoes, diced or whole (I've actually fire-roasted fresh tomatoes, but it's winter, so... no)
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes, crushed
2-4 onions
2-3 cloves of garlic, minimum
sploosh of vodka
1 lb fun vegetables (we typically use some combination of green beans, zuchinni, or summer squash, but many other things would be good as well; my mom's made it with white beans, even)
2-3 Tb of cream cheese (we use organic neufchatel, because it's what we have around)
fresh-ground black pepper and salt to taste
optional - leftover fresh salmon and/or sexy smoked salmon. mmmmm.

Chop and saute onions in olive oil or butter with a sploosh of vodka. Add minced or crushed garlic. Saute until everything's transparent. Add veggies at an appropriate time -- green beans late, summer squash earlier. Add crushed tomatoes. Strain diced tomatoes and add, or strain whole tomatoes, chop, and add. Stir on high until vegetables are nearly done, adding seasonings to taste. Turn down heat and add cream cheese -- stir in carefully, because it'll want to clump initially. (Different brands are different thicknesses, so add in increments until sauce looks or tastes creamy enough.) If adding salmon, fragment and add at this point. Serve over pasta. Top with grated hard cheese.

Yummy and oh-so-easy.