Homemade Pasta Sauce
My take on a classic red sauce. Use on spaghetti, eggplant Parmesan, lasagna, or spoon over zoodles. Freeze and eat all year long.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds of fresh tomatoes seeded and roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 medium onions diced
- 8 cloves of fresh garlic minced
- 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves finely chopped
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried
- 1 sprig of fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of parsley or 1 tsp dried
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 carrot
Instructions
- Chop all your vegetables before you start cooking. Dice the onions, mince the garlic, and chop the basil. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove most of the seeds and juice, and then roughly chop. It is important to remove the seeds and liquid or the sauce will not thicken properly. Cut the carrot in half and put one of the halves to the side. The other half should be grated.
- Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat until it shimmers.
- Add onions, garlic and grated carrots and saute for 5-6 minutes until the onions are translucent.
- Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, parsley and sea salt to the stock pot.
- Simmer on low heat for at least 2 hours or until cooked down and starting to darken.
- Add carrot piece for the last 30 minutes to absorb acidity.
- Remove the carrot, bay leaves, and thyme, parsley, and oregano stems (the leaves will have fallen off the stems into the sauce).
- Turn off the heat and use an immersion blender to puree sauce until smooth. Alternatively, let the mixture cool and puree in a batches in a blender.
- Use immediately or freeze in quart sized zipper bags. If air tight, the sauce will keep for 6-12 months.
Notes
Double recipe to 10 pounds tomato to get four quarts of sauce. I have stopped peeling the tomatoes. If you use an immersion blender this step doesn't matter. But it is important to remove most of the seeds and juice or the sauce does not thicken as well.