6. Making Tomato Sauce from Scratch

Making homemade tomato sauce is so easy and it tastes soooo much better than sauce from a jar!!!  It's really easy and simple and once you get it down it'll take only a couple minutes for you to have beautiful tomato sauce for any occasion!  This is a really great thing to have in your arsenal!  Here are your options: Tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes and tomato sauce using canned tomatoes.  Let me know if you are interested in learning the fresh way. 

 What you'll need: 

 1 oz. can of whole San Marazano Tomatoes 

 1 oz. can of Tomato Paste 

 1/2 medium Onion, diced (see below "onion" blog) 

 4 cloves Garlic, chopped 

 1 tbsp. sugar 

 1 tsp. dried Oregano (or about 10 leaves fresh, chopped) 

 Olive Oil 

 Salt 

 Fresh Basil 

 What you'll do: 

In a medium saucepan, saute the diced onion in about 3 tbsp. olive oil and a pinch of salt.  Saute till the onions get a little soft.  They should look like this:  

Open the can of tomatoes and squish them through your fingers as you put them and their juice all in the pot.  You can put them in whole, but they take a long time to break down, so if your in a rush, squish them : )  Add the oregano, sugar, garlic and tomato paste.  Stir and let sit and get happy for a little while on low temp.  You could also add a splash of red wine at this point if you'd like.  About 3 minutes before you are going to serve, add some roughly chopped basil. 

 Key things to know: Add the garlic more towards the end to maintain the nice garlic flavor. Add the basil at the end because it can get bitter if it's cooked too long. Don't stir the onions too much when they are sauteing.  The salt will pull out the bitterness when they are cooking. Taste as you go. And voila!  You've got some mighty tasty tomato sauce!!  You can use it on pizza (see pizza blog) or over pasta, or in a sandwich, with meatballs, or put it in the blender and make tomato soup. These are the tomatoes I use and like:

xoxo

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