Sunday, May 17, 2009

Simply Delicious Tomato Sauce















I've been working on perfecting tomato sauce for a couple years now. Originally my friend had passed along a recipe from her friend so I've been using that as my basis. I've made some changes and I think today's batch may just have been the best so far. Maybe it was the fresh basil I picked from the yard about 5 minutes before adding it in, maybe it's the organic tomatoes, or maybe I just got the measurements down. In any case, this one was good!

2 TBSP olive oil
1 small can tomato paste
1-1/2 cups of water
2 large (28 oz) cans of organic crushed tomatoes
2 shallots, diced
2 tsp. garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 TBSP dried oregano
Salt & pepper, about 1 tsp of each

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven. Saute the shallots and carrot for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add in the garlic and saute another 3-5 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add in 1 cup of the water and the can of tomato paste. Mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add in the crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt & pepper and the remaining water. Mix together well and put the heat on low. Slowly simmer for 1-2 hours or until the sauce has thickened. This makes quite a bit of sauce, almost a half gallon, so go ahead and freeze some in containers for later use. It will still be just as good!

1 comment:

What's Cookin Chicago said...

You can never go wrong with a solid tomato sauce recipe on hand - looks wonderful!