Pasta Sauce
I have a whole mess of pasta sauce (red to be exact) chugging along in my crock pot as I type. The whole apartment smells phenomenal so I thought I would share the recipe. I have a 6 qt. crock so when I fill it 2/3-3/4 full I get a LOT of sauce, but it freezes well. Also, this recipe is so easily adaptable to your tastes. When cooking my legit measuring skills goes out the window so bear with me here...
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot (or in my case handful of baby carrots), chopped
1-2 stalks of celery (depends how big yours are), chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced (or some healthy shakes of garlic powder)
3 cans of diced tomatoes (the regular sized ones, not the huge honkers!)
2 cans of stewed tomatoes (regular sized, mine came with onions, garlic and green peppers I think)
1 can tomato paste (this is the very small one, probably 4 oz or something wee)
6 oz. red wine (you can sub broth with a splash of vinegar if you don't want to do wine, tomato juice, white wine, but you need some liquid that can help deglaze)
2 bay leaves
oregano
basil
salt
pepper
sugar
1.) Saute onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil (enough to saute, but not drown). Once they get soft, add carrots. Once those are soft, add celery. Season with salt and pepper.
2.) Plunk the contents of the tomato paste can into your veggies. Mix around and heat through. Walk away for a little bit. This will develop flavor.
3.) Take pan off heat, deglaze with wine and scrape up the goodness. Put back on heat and let bubble until it smells good and gets a little thicker (You can completely skip these steps and chuck it all in the crock if you want. It'll be a different flavor, but sometimes we don't have the time or energy to screw around).
4.) Dump cans of tomatoes in the crock. Add contents of saute pan (be careful! it can splash!).
5.) Add your bay leaves, and shake in a healthy dose of oregano and basil. This is to your taste. I probably to about 2 T. of each but it's really just eyeballed.
6.) Put in a pinch of sugar (you can add more if you want a little sweeter sauce, but don't omit. It helps cut the tin-iness/tang of the canned tomatoes).
7.) Crock on low for 4ish hours.
*edited because I was a doof and forgot some key points!*
- Take out the bay leaves!!!
- I run a stick (immersion, hand held) blender through mine as my boyfriend doesn't like chunky sauces. Personally I don't much care, but if I blend it, he doesn't realize all the veggies in there :)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot (or in my case handful of baby carrots), chopped
1-2 stalks of celery (depends how big yours are), chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced (or some healthy shakes of garlic powder)
3 cans of diced tomatoes (the regular sized ones, not the huge honkers!)
2 cans of stewed tomatoes (regular sized, mine came with onions, garlic and green peppers I think)
1 can tomato paste (this is the very small one, probably 4 oz or something wee)
6 oz. red wine (you can sub broth with a splash of vinegar if you don't want to do wine, tomato juice, white wine, but you need some liquid that can help deglaze)
2 bay leaves
oregano
basil
salt
pepper
sugar
1.) Saute onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil (enough to saute, but not drown). Once they get soft, add carrots. Once those are soft, add celery. Season with salt and pepper.
2.) Plunk the contents of the tomato paste can into your veggies. Mix around and heat through. Walk away for a little bit. This will develop flavor.
3.) Take pan off heat, deglaze with wine and scrape up the goodness. Put back on heat and let bubble until it smells good and gets a little thicker (You can completely skip these steps and chuck it all in the crock if you want. It'll be a different flavor, but sometimes we don't have the time or energy to screw around).
4.) Dump cans of tomatoes in the crock. Add contents of saute pan (be careful! it can splash!).
5.) Add your bay leaves, and shake in a healthy dose of oregano and basil. This is to your taste. I probably to about 2 T. of each but it's really just eyeballed.
6.) Put in a pinch of sugar (you can add more if you want a little sweeter sauce, but don't omit. It helps cut the tin-iness/tang of the canned tomatoes).
7.) Crock on low for 4ish hours.
*edited because I was a doof and forgot some key points!*
- Take out the bay leaves!!!
- I run a stick (immersion, hand held) blender through mine as my boyfriend doesn't like chunky sauces. Personally I don't much care, but if I blend it, he doesn't realize all the veggies in there :)