Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tomato Sauce From Scratch

In my quest to not eat refined sugars, I have become a compulsive food-labels reader. In my readings, I have discovered that there are almost no pasta sauces without added sugar. This doesn't bother me because I prefer home made sauce anyway. This is the basic sauce I use for everything, pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, you name it. You can easily change it up by adding mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, chicken, eggplant, or whatever you like best in your sauce.
Last night I had it over home made whole wheat noodles, with chicken and sweet peppers.

Tomato Sauce
1 large clove garlic, diced
1/2 small onion, chopped small
about 1 tsp olive oil
1 bay leaf, optional
dried or fresh oregano, to taste
basil, to taste (preferably fresh, use dried in an emergency)
about 5 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can petite diced tomatoes, or a combination.
Salt, to taste

in a small pot, saute the onions and garlic with the olive oil until they are softened and fragrant. Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, and oregano. If you are using dry basil, add that. Simmer over very low heat until the sauce is reduced to your liking. Adjust salt and add the chopped basil if you are using fresh, and remove from the heat immediately.

And that's it folks. You can run it through a blender if you prefer smooth sauce, you can add anything you want to it. For pizza, I usually cook it longer for a dryer sauce than I use for pasta, but it's up to you what you like.
I was out of fresh basil

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