Homemade Pasta Sauce

When I first started cooking for myself, I used store-bought bottled pasta sauce.  It may not have tasted great, but it was quick and easy!  Now I make my own pasta sauce.  I usually cook a large potful and freeze most of it for a quick meal on a weeknight.

One tip I was told many years ago is to use canned whole tomatoes and not the ones already crushed.  I have never tested this tip, but I do follow it.  In fact, I often used frozen tomatoes.  Yes, frozen tomatoes!  I normally freeze all the extra tomatoes from our garden during the summer that we did not use.

Another tip I learned is to adding a little sugar to certain dishes can give your dish another dimension.  For me, this is one of them!  Another is with bacon!

With the smell of homemade  pasta sauce running through the house, we most definitely will have the pasta sauce on our dinner plate.

Homemade Pasta Sauce
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 garlic head, roasted
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes (or 10 frozen tomatoes)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (optional to taste)
2 5.5-ounce tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
salt and pepper
3 carrots, roughly chunked
1 lb button mushrooms, halved
3 red peppers, cut into bit-size
2 small zucchinis, roughly chunked
2 parsnips (optional)

Directions:
1)   Slice off a little off the top of the head of garlic.  Drizzle some olive oil.  Roast the garlic head at 350F for about 40 minutes.
2)  In a large pot over medium heat, add oil.  Add onion and saute for a couple of minutes.
3)  Reduce heat to simmer.  Add tomatoes, oregano, basil, marjoram, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, sugar, salt and pepper.  Break up the whole tomatoes with a spoon.
4)  Add tomato paste.  Stir occasionally for about an hour.
5)  Whenever the garlic is ready, remove the garlic cloves.  Mash up garlic and add to the pot.
6)  Start adding in the vegetables starting with the ones that takes the longest to cook.  I normally add the carrots first.  After 20 minutes add mushrooms and red peppers.  After another 10 minutes add zucchini and parsnip.  Cook for another 10 minutes.