Pasta Sauce

 

All ingredients and amounts are flexible, dependent upon taste and availability.  If you can think of something else good to add, go for it!  This recipe takes about 45 min. to an hour to complete, but you end up with a huge pot of sauce to use and freeze for later.

 

For it to be tomato sauce:

5 Quarts of canned tomatoes

• I often use tomatoes canned with peppers and onions from our garden.
• I also usually use one of the quarts to blend with other things and add a tomato paste texture.

For green veggie goodness:

1 5oz package of fresh or frozen spinach, cooked until it looks wilted.

• I prefer to steam it in the microwave using no additional water and preserving all the nutrients in the juice for the sauce.

For wholesome sweetness:

1 package carrots (about 10), cooked until soft

• You can use a bag of baby carrots, which are a lot less work.  I just feel bad for the big guys sometimes.

2 Red Bell Peppers, cooked

• You can use yellow or orange, but red helps with the coloring of the sauce.
• Adding more can only make the sauce sweeter!  Yum.

For protein and a little texture:

2 cups of Sandy Willard’s white beans, cooked

• Or 1 can of any white beans

For savory flavor:

1 whole head of garlic, roasted or steamed

A big bunch of fresh herbs – basil & rosemary or ¼-½  a bottle of dried herbs (Rosemary Herb mix from Pampered Chef is excellent!)

1 tsp. Salt (but really…it’s probably not necessary)

Optional :

2 heads of broccoli, cut small and cooked.

1 package of chopped mushrooms

1 can chopped artichoke hearts

 

Dump 4 quarts of tomatoes in a large saucepan and set on med-low heat.  Stir periodically.

Clean and cook vegetables and garlic until they are soft.  Blend them in a blender, then add to the tomatoes.

Blend beans and add to the pot.  (I usually blend them along with some tomatoes to make it easier to get them out of the blender.)

Chop fresh herbs (or get out your dried herbs) and add them to the pot.

Add optional chopped vegetables, if you want.  You might need to divide the sauce into two pans at this point.

Let the sauce simmer for 10-20 minutes while your pasta is cooking.

Serve it up and feel great knowing your family is getting a variety of awesome, low-fat nutrients, hardly any salt and NO sugar!

Freeze the rest in bags, according to how much you use at a time.  I usually divide the sauce into four groups – one to serve and three to freeze.  I have also canned this basic recipe (minus the beans) and it turned out great.  But I don’t know much about canning safety, so don’t take my word for it.

Let me know if you try it and if you find any tweeks that I could try.