Chardonnay Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

As a young single person, one of my weeknight "go-to" dishes was a tomato Alfredo sauce served over pasta.  Typically, I would reheat a bottle of commercially available sauce, and toss into it whatever pasta was in the pantry and crown it with whatever steamed vegetable  the "crisper" had to offer (usually broccoli).

My tastes have evolved since then and much has changed about my knowledge of how to extract maximum flavor from simple ingredients.  This is an ongoing project for me and I continue to refine the flavor profile.  Deconstructing what I loved about the dish I set out to develop a sauce that has a creamy texture, a strong tomato flavor, A notably boozy note, and a salty finish.

 I'm happy to introduce this as I find it a marked improvement over what you can buy commercially.  I selected Chardonnay  for this dish because I like its robust oakiness.  Any dry white wine would work.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups heavy cream

2 ounces sun-dried tomatoes (dry style, very thinly sliced)

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried red pepper flakes

1 garlic clove (crushed)

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1/8 tsp salt

1 sweet yellow onion (peeled, thin pole to pole slices)

1 garlic clove (minced)

1 ounce tomato paste

8 ounces chardonnay

8 ounces tomato juice

2 ounces Parmigiano Regiano (finely grated)

white roux

Method:  

1. Infuse the cream:  In a small saucepan over low heat combine cream, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and 1 crushed garlic clove.  Bring to scald, lower heat, and reduce to about 1 cup volume.  Remove bay leaf and keep warm.  
2. Caramelize aromatics:  In a large sateuse, heat olive oil over medium heat.  When oil is ready add onions and toss lightly with salt to draw out the moisture.  Saute onions until they start to caramelize.  Add minced garlic and stir to combine.  If garlic begins to burn, reduce heat.  Add a bit more oil to the pan if things get too dry.    
3. Deglaze, reduce, and thicken sauce: When the onions and garlic have caramelized, add the tomato paste and stir well.  Heat for about 1 minute or until the tomato paste begins to stick to the pan.  Deglaze the pan with the wine, scrape the suc from the pan.  Add warm cream mixture and tomato juice, stirring well.  Heat through and thicken with white roux and reduce to desired consistency.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheese a little at a time.  
4. Serve over hot al-dente pasta.