Sunday Night Dinner - Quick Pasta Sauce

Life has been pretty busy for us, and for the past couple of weeks I've lacked in the wanting to cook department. Luckily we had quite a few items in the freezer (chili, stew, perogies) so we were still able to eat alright, in between the take out Indian and Greek and Thai. Today I'd had enough, so planned meals for the week and then realized I forgot about tonight's dinner. I took a quick inventory, and while we had a frozen bag of tortellini, I wasn't sure what to do about a sauce. I modified one I've been making for a few years with what I had on hand, and the results were quite lovely.

Quick Tomato Sauce (all measurements approximate)
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- half onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1-2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 jar passata (strained tomatoes)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp Herbes de Provence
- salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter with olive oil in pan over medium heat. When butter is bubbling, add onion, carrots and celery. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add passata, tomato paste, Herbes de Provence and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. While it's simmering boil water and cook your favourite pasta. To serve I reserved about half a cup of pasta water and added a bit when I tossed the sauce with the pasta. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan and serve.