Using up crushed tomatoes.

I bought a fairly large can of crushed tomatoes when I was making chicken curry last week and kept the unused portion in a container in the fridge waiting for an opportunity to be used. Tonight was just such an opportunity when I was craving a simple pasta for dinner. 

While the water was boiling to cook my brown rice pasta I made my simple sauce. I sauteed an onion with some garlic then added some Italian seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and crushed tomatoes. I let this all simmer together until the pasta was cooked then added salt and pepper to taste. The vinegar gives the sauce a richness, like if you were to use red wine, and then you need something sweet to cut the acidity of it and of the tomatoes and then some salt to set it off. I served it very simply over the pasta with some parmesan shavings. One more left over ingredient used (though not all of it I am afraid). Maybe I will have to get some pitas and make mini pizzas using the crushed tomatoes as the pizza sauce?

I still have buttermilk and pumpkin left though. The major downside of cooking by recipes instead of by what you have in the fridge if you ask me! I found a recipe in my Quinoa book for a moist chocolate cake, I am thinking of trying it out and maybe using the buttermilk instead of normal milk? Too risky to start tampering with recipes already I fear....but what to do with the left over buttermilk?!!?