I've always loved making spaghetti during winter, don't know why but its just easy cooking. A few years ago, a friend taught me how to make homemade pasta sauce as I always plant a few bushes of tomato plants. My all time favorite tomatoes are the celebrity. Prior to making pasta sauce, I would give away extra tomatoes as there is only how much tomato a person can eat at a time.
I thought making pasta sauce would be a big task as I googled it once and saw how much work was put into it. Here is the easy version that I've learnt. If you have someone that can't digest tomato seeds, you may not want to use this method.
1) Remove tomato skin:
In a big pot of boiling water, submerge tomatoes, about 30-45 seconds, you will see skin rolling. Remove from hot water and submerge into cold water. That will help cool tomato and you can remove the skin. Place tomatoes in a colander. You will notice the tomato will be slowing ozzing water out. Repeat removing skin of all tomatoes.
2) If you want, you can dice the tomato and remove the seeds but still leave it in the colander. You bascially don't want all the juice/water in the tomato. I'm lazy so I skip this step.
3) In a big pot,
I sautee diced red onions and minced garlic in lots of olive oil.
Then add the tomatoes. Here with my lazy method, I just use my hand and crush the tomatoes into the pot.
Add basil ,italian herbs(my miracle: I buy the tube of italian herbs in the herb section at the grocery store), salt, sugar and black pepper and bay leaf.
After letting the tomatoes cook for awhile, I will use a potato masher to mash the tomatoes as I do not want my sauce to be chunky. You don't really need to mash too much as the tomatoes will breakdown when they get cooked
Add 1-2 cans of tomato paste (depend on how thick or runny you like your sauce).
Let the sauce simmer until most of the water/juice is gone
4) Storage:
I do not can. I just bag 2 1/2 cups of sauce into 1 ziploc bag. Lay the bags flat and freeze them individually. Once all bags are frozen, I just pack them up in the freezer. You can bag the sauce according to your family usage. 2 1/2 cups works fine for my family of 4 with abit of leftover for the next day.
If you notice, I've not give any measurements, do not worry, this sauce is very forgiving.
My kids love when I add sauteed mushrooms and meatball to this sauce. I usually will cook them in a slow cooker for 4 hrs and the flavors of the mushroom and meatball makes this sauce even tastier. I do add a can of tomato paste to the sauce when I'm preparing my spaghetti meal as my kids like their sauce thick.
Good luck trying
Note: I wasn't solicited by any business to promote the Italian Herbs. I had to go buy this item myself. I always use this when I make this sauce.
