Fresh Pasta Suace

I don't think I'm alone when I figure that when you say you are making marinara or meat sauce from scratch, using canned tomato sauce and canned tomatoes totally counts. You are still making the sauce. I still think that this holds true and will take all the credit for my canned-tomato sauce marinara. However, I am trying to get away from canned tomatoes because I've read that there are PCBs in the cans that can leach into the sauce itself from the high acidity level. Darn it! Back to the drawing board.

While I think it is fairly painless to make your own tomato sauce - I don't always have the time to boil the tomatoes, peel them, cook them, and grind them up. If I want a spur of the moment tomato sauce, this is what I am going to do from now on. I've done this twice in the past couple weeks because it is so good, and so easy. I haven't even used it on pasta yet, so I'll probably be making it again.

It is a fresh, simple tomato sauce. It is chunky and full of flavor. I start with about 6 or 7 roma tomatoes and an onion, dice them up, and add them to a saucepan with some extra virgin olive oil and let it start cooking over medium high heat. I also add dried basil, oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper. Then I just let it cook over medium heat for however long I want. The longer you cook it, the more "saucy" it is going to get as everything breaks down. At the end I add a couple splashes of red wine as well as balsamic vinegar.

The first time I made this sauce I was making Eggs in Purgatory. One of my favorite egg dishes. I made the sauce in a skillet, then made 4 little holes in the sauce and cracked in 4 eggs. I covered it with foil for a few minutes and viola! Served over cous cous and it was fabulous.

The second time I made the sauce was last night, while making Cauliflower Crust Pizza. I'm not going to put a separate post about this pizza because I didn't really take something processed and make it unprocessed, but it is totally worth mentioning. I am a true believer now! Even my two year old thought he was eating regular pizza - and he got so many veggies! I gave him bread on the side to make sure he got some carbs for his growing body.

I used the tomato sauce as the sauce for the pizza. Super yummy. I would add garlic too, once Alli is done breastfeeding. She isn't a fan of it quite yet!