Pasta Sauce

Good Morning!

Here is a pasta sauce that I use based off of a recipe I found online called “'Baby’s Got Sauce' Italian Sauce". I tweaked it a bit. I hope you like it!

1 Batch--------------------------------------------2 batches-------------------------------4 Batches

Olive Oil----------------------------------------same----------------------------------same

1 large onion-----------------------------------2 onions------------------------------4 onions

7-8 cloves garlic, crushed---------------------14-16 cloves--------------------------28-32 cloves

Italian Sausage-6-8 links or 1 lb ground—12-16 links or 2 lbs-------------------24-32 links or 4 lbs

1 can Tomato paste----------------------------2 cans tomato paste-----------------4 cans tomato paste

2-28 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes--------4-28 oz cans--------------------------8-28 oz cans

1-28 oz can Crushed or diced Tomatoes----2 cans ---------------------------------4 cans

2-4 3.5 oz jars of baby food carrots-----------4-8 jars------------------------------8-16 jars

Fresh Basil diced fine--------------------------same---------------------------------same

Fresh Oregano diced fine----------------------same---------------------------------same

Fresh Thyme diced fine------------------------same---------------------------------same

5 Bay Leaves ------------------------------------10 bay leaves-----------------------20 bay leaves

Port or sweet red wine (optional but REALLY adds to the flavor)

Salt

Pepper

Crushed Red Pepper (about a tablespoon)

A large, deep pot

Optional:

Capers

Olives

Red Bell Pepper

Zuccini

Put 3 Tablespoons of olive oil in pot to brown sausage. Remove from pot and set aside. Add enough olive oil to cover bottom of pot 1/8-1/4 inch and bring back to hot temperature. Saute onions in pot until they become translucent. Lightly salt and pepper onions.

Add crushed garlic, can of tomato paste. Cook on medium high for a few minutes to mellow flavor of tomato paste. Watch carefully to prevent burning, especially of garlic.

Add whole peeled tomatoes.* Add diced/crushed tomatoes**.

Add herbs***

Add sausage back in.

Add baby food carrots. Carrots give the sauce a wonderful light bit of sweetness. You can mince whole carrots, but I found that baby food carrots are exceptional in the recipe, and much easier to use.

Continue to taste every twenty minutes to gauge flavor of sauce to see if salt or pepper is necessary. If you like spicy sauce, add crushed red peppers.

Optional: Port or sweet red wine (merlot, etc). Port gives and incredible depth and compliment of flavor to the meat and tomatoes. In fact, we often put a splash of port in everything from soup to chili. It truly just ties all the flavors together in such a perfect way, giving a depth and richness. A few Tablespoons should do, but you can taste and see if more is needed.

*These need to be crushed either in the pot or in the can. I find it much easier to crush/chop them in the can. OR you can use already diced tomatoes in the larger cans.

**I like to use fire roasted tomatoes or other flavored tomatoes.

***I often use dried herbs. I would start with 1 Tbls and see how strong they taste. You can also get tubes of herbs in the fresh produce section, which are very convenient.

The longer this cooks, the better it tastes. I generally make this first for my freezer meal days and let it simmer all day long until I assemble lasagne at the end of the day :) It also freezes well by itself for spaghetti sauce.