Personally, I really dislike canned sauce, though if it's the only option, I'll eat it.
I LOVE making homemade sauce, and spending an entire day doing it too.
I have yet to go the Super route and start with fresh tomato's, though, it just seems like too much work.
My typical recipe is as follows:
Onions, nearly carmalized in butter in a frying pan. Add minced garlic, dried oregano, dried parsely, fresh basil, a little red wine (Merlot or Shiraz, or a mix of both) a TINY bit of crushed red pepper, some sun dried tomato, and then a tablespoon or 3 of olive oil. Cook it up a little in the pan, then throw it all in a crock pot.
Add a can of stewed tomatoes (this is the part where the too-much-work feeling takes over and I do the lazy method that makes it not super). Use the italian style or regular, whatever. Then a can of tomato paste, again with the italian or regular. Then 2 cans of Tomato Sauce, NOT FLAVORED IN ANY WAY. They have cans like that next to the canned tomato paste and stewed tomatoes. Do not get it from the pasta sauce aisle or you're just flavoring somebody else's sauce instead of making your own. If you wanna be super, get some fresh tomatoes, Roma and a lot of em, and make the sauce base yourself, stew the tomatoes yourself (I've done that part its work, trust me). Maybe make the paste yourself too, I don't have a clue how to do that and I don't want to. Sun dry some tomatoes too if you wanna be super fancy about it.
Let cook in crock pot on low for about an hour. Do this all at like 5am.
You can also throw in other spices and flavors if you'd like, possible ideas i've tried or plan on trying are celery flakes (small amount), fennel seeds (commonly found in italian sausage, add an interesting flavor), or different cheeses (I really only recommend powdered parmesean, as mozarella doesn't melt and liquify that well and might make the sauce a little...odd, but do what you like).
Stir it all up, maybe pull out a blender wand ( a magical invention I need to get out from under the seat in my van) and blend up some of it.
Cook it a few more hours.
Taste.
Reseason to taste.
Keep this up, with the stirring, blending, tasting and reseasoning until you're ready for dinner at about 5 or 6pm.
Somewhere during all that tasting and correcting you might decide its a little too acidic, if that's the case add a PINCH of sugar, and mix it all up. Use that blender wand again if you have it.
Expect to have leftovers. I suggest sandwich bags, double layered or inside a freezer bag, then stuck in the freezer for storage and reuse. Keeps better than basic tupperware, and is in good size portions for thawing in a low heat pot after soaking in a warm sink for the next time.
I probably forgot some steps, but I plan on doing this again this weekend, so I'll update then on anything I remembered or learned. Last time I did it, I learned that cooking all that stuff together in the pan REALLLLLY brings out the flavor of it all, and hence learned that doing it that way I should use a LOT less wine and red pepper, but freezing it and waiting a few days to a week really cuts down on the wine taste and improves it dramatically.
How do you guys do it?
I LOVE making homemade sauce, and spending an entire day doing it too.
I have yet to go the Super route and start with fresh tomato's, though, it just seems like too much work.
My typical recipe is as follows:
Onions, nearly carmalized in butter in a frying pan. Add minced garlic, dried oregano, dried parsely, fresh basil, a little red wine (Merlot or Shiraz, or a mix of both) a TINY bit of crushed red pepper, some sun dried tomato, and then a tablespoon or 3 of olive oil. Cook it up a little in the pan, then throw it all in a crock pot.
Add a can of stewed tomatoes (this is the part where the too-much-work feeling takes over and I do the lazy method that makes it not super). Use the italian style or regular, whatever. Then a can of tomato paste, again with the italian or regular. Then 2 cans of Tomato Sauce, NOT FLAVORED IN ANY WAY. They have cans like that next to the canned tomato paste and stewed tomatoes. Do not get it from the pasta sauce aisle or you're just flavoring somebody else's sauce instead of making your own. If you wanna be super, get some fresh tomatoes, Roma and a lot of em, and make the sauce base yourself, stew the tomatoes yourself (I've done that part its work, trust me). Maybe make the paste yourself too, I don't have a clue how to do that and I don't want to. Sun dry some tomatoes too if you wanna be super fancy about it.
Let cook in crock pot on low for about an hour. Do this all at like 5am.
You can also throw in other spices and flavors if you'd like, possible ideas i've tried or plan on trying are celery flakes (small amount), fennel seeds (commonly found in italian sausage, add an interesting flavor), or different cheeses (I really only recommend powdered parmesean, as mozarella doesn't melt and liquify that well and might make the sauce a little...odd, but do what you like).
Stir it all up, maybe pull out a blender wand ( a magical invention I need to get out from under the seat in my van) and blend up some of it.
Cook it a few more hours.
Taste.
Reseason to taste.
Keep this up, with the stirring, blending, tasting and reseasoning until you're ready for dinner at about 5 or 6pm.
Somewhere during all that tasting and correcting you might decide its a little too acidic, if that's the case add a PINCH of sugar, and mix it all up. Use that blender wand again if you have it.
Expect to have leftovers. I suggest sandwich bags, double layered or inside a freezer bag, then stuck in the freezer for storage and reuse. Keeps better than basic tupperware, and is in good size portions for thawing in a low heat pot after soaking in a warm sink for the next time.
I probably forgot some steps, but I plan on doing this again this weekend, so I'll update then on anything I remembered or learned. Last time I did it, I learned that cooking all that stuff together in the pan REALLLLLY brings out the flavor of it all, and hence learned that doing it that way I should use a LOT less wine and red pepper, but freezing it and waiting a few days to a week really cuts down on the wine taste and improves it dramatically.
How do you guys do it?
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