Homemade Pasta Sauce

Last week we talked about how to roast tomatoes and garlic. "What do I do with 16 roasted tomatoes?", you might ask yourself. Roasted tomatoes and garlic are the secret ingredients to my fabulous (yes, it really is!) Homemade Pasta Sauce (Try it, you won't want sauce out of a jar ever again). I will roast 15-16 tomatoes on a baking sheet and then use them all to make a huge pot of pasta sauce. It freezes well in any size container. At the beginning of the week I will move a container from the freezer to the fridge where it is ready to heat up to put over pasta or spaghetti squash for dinner any night of the week. 

I don't have a written recipe for my pasta sauce, so I'll just tell you how I do it and try to give you amounts. Like I said, I typically make a huge pot with 15-16 roasted tomatoes, so keep that in mind if you are making a smaller batch with only a few tomatoes.

Ingredients:
Olive Oil

1 Med-Large Onion (white or yellow), chopped

Garlic - 1 Whole Head, roasted (click here for technique)

15-16 Roasted Tomatoes (click here for technique)

1 Large Green Pepper (or red or orange), chopped

1 -2 Carrots, chopped

1-2 Stalks Celery, chopped

Handful Basil Leaves, chopped
1 Tbsp Oregano

Sea Salt, to taste

Black Pepper, to taste

Red Pepper Flakes

NOTE: Regarding the peppers, carrots & celery...if I have them, I use them. If I only have one of them, I use it. This recipe is not dependent on having all three. They add great nutrition and robustness to the sauce, but are not necessary for a great sauce. Also, everything can be chopped very roughly because it will be blended in the end.

ANOTHER NOTE: Because this sauce is homemade from fresh ingredients, it turns out more orange than red. We are so used to the red sauce we get from a jar or can (coloring added) that it may seem strange at first to see the light red or orange color of fresh homemade sauce. The flavor is so wonderful that you will soon forget that the color is different.

Technique:

Pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil into a large pan or pot and turn on medium high heat. Add chopped onion, pepper, carrots and celery. Saute for a few minutes until onions are clear. Add tomatoes (just pick them up whole off the tray and put them in the pot) and garlic (the whole roasted head, that you squeezed out). Add a couple of pinches each of sea salt and black pepper and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. (add more as it cooks if you like a bigger kick).


With your wooden spoon, break up the tomatoes; they are soft and roasted and will smash easily. Add a handful of roughly chopped basil, (if using dried basil add about 1 Tbsp) and 1 Tbsp of oregano. Break everything up and mix together. Turn stove on low and simmer 15-30 minutes.


If I have time, I let it simmer longer...just makes for better flavor. When done simmering, turn off the stove and let it sit there. The flavors will continue to meld and intensify as the heat dissipates.


When it has cooled down, scoop it up into the blender. I don't really worry about exactly how much of everything gets into each batch I blend because I pour it into a giant bowl after blending. Continue to mix one blender full at a time until the pot is empty and the sauce is now completely blended and poured into the giant bowl. Then I can mix it up with my wooden spoon, making sure that the seasoning is fully mixed in. Once it's mixed up, I scoop it into containers for the freezer.


This pic is one that was in my freezer. My hard drive crashed and I lost a lot of pictures (Yeah, I know, I should have had them backed up!) so I am now short of pics for posts that I had planned. If I wait until I make another batch of homemade pasta sauce in order to get pictures of the pot, blender and bowl of sauce, it might be a while til you get this recipe. I promised the recipe, so will make do with the pics I have.


I absolutely love this pasta sauce and I'm confident you will too. Doug and I like it a little spicy, so I add more red pepper flakes. It is so good over spaghetti squash or angel hair pasta. Sprinkle some fresh parmesan or parmigiano reggiano on top for true Italian flavored homemade pasta sauce. Mangia!


What is your favorite thing to do with pasta sauce?

Healthy Habits: Roasted Garlic & Tomatoes

If you haven't tried a tomato plant in your container garden because you don't know what to do with that many tomatoes, here ya go. If you have an opportunity to purchase a case inexpensively from a local Farmers Market or they go on sale at the grocery store...stock up! Roasting them is easy, and fresh roasted tomatoes add incredible flavor to everything. A case of tomatoes does not last very long if you take a few to make fun, personal caprese salad, a few for homemade stewed tomatoes, a sheet of roasted tomato halves with basil and mozzarella cheese, and a sheet of roasted tomatoes for homemade pasta sauce. Oh yeah, don't forget to hold out a few for a couple different homemade salsas.


How to roast tomatoes...

What you need:

Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Technique:

Core the tomatoes with a paring knife

Set them on baking tray (it's ok if they're touching)

If any is so lopsided that it won't sit straight, cut a very thin slice off the bottom (I rarely have to do this)

Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes (it's ok if it collects in the holes)

Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Place in 400 degree (F) oven for 30-45 min. (depending on size of tomatoes and intensity of your oven)

Tomatoes will be very soft, slightly wilted and slightly browned on top when done.

Now, you're ready to cook with roasted tomatoes. Check back for homemade pasta sauce with your roasted tomatoes.

Many savory recipes start with garlic and onions. Using roasted garlic adds the kick of flavor that you can't put your finger on. It is the difference in taste of a typical homemade recipe and the same thing from a gourmet restaurant. And if you like garlic bread, you will flip when you have it homemade with your own roasted garlic.

Roasted Garlic...
What you need:
Whole Garlic Heads
Oilve Oil
Aluminum Foil


Technique:
With a sharp knife, cut the top off each head of garlic, leaving it sitting on the root end.
Set the garlic on a piece of foil. (I usually roast 4-6 at a time)
Drizzle a little olive oil over the garlic.

Wrap foil up around garlic, pinching tightly at the top.
Put it in a 400* (F) oven for 30-45 minutes. (You can set it on the tray with tomatoes if you are doing them at the same time. 

This is what it looks like after roasting it...soft and smelling like garlic heaven!

Pick up a whole head. Grab it at the base and gently (but firmly) squeeze the cloves out.

Keep squeezing until you get all the garlic out. Oh, it smells so good!!

It is now ready to use.
For Homemade Garlic Bread, just mush this up with a fork and then spread with a knife on your french bread (over the butter you have spread on the bread first).
For cooking, just add it to your recipe just like you would raw garlic.
I typically roast 4-6 heads at a time, depending on what I plan to cook over the next week. If I use one head that day, I wrap the rest of them back into the foil and just keep it in the fridge to use each day.


What recipe have you tried that you just can't seem to get to taste the same as it does at the restaurant?