Quick and Easy Tomato Sauce

Making homemade spaghetti/tomato sauce doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complicated. There really is no need to ever open another jar as long as you live. This is also a perfect base for meat sauces.

In 10 minutes you will “wow” friends and family on how you always make homemade tomato sauce. One thing that is very important is to use fresh basil not dried and add it at the very end of cooking. The longer basil cooks the less flavor it will have. Dried basil retains flavor, however, the difference in the flavors is huge. Well worth the effort of using fresh. Plus fresh basil has a lot of health benefits!

A quick tip for chopping basil, stack all your leaves and roll into a log. The way you rolled up Play-Dough to make a snake. Start chopping the end in the thinnest strips you can manage. What I do for even smaller pieces, I make a slit from half way up down the length of the basil roll. Then I chop the ends. When I reach the point of the middle cut, I repeat with the remaining. Just watch your fingers!

 Here's what you will need:

1 28 oz can whole tomatoes (use whole not pre-diced. The diced ones have added chemicals to preserve the color and appearence of the tomatoes and changes the taste of them), you can grow and can your own tomatoes if you do use those instead.

¼ c tomato paste    
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste, or red pepper flakes for added heat

Heat the oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.  Don't burn the garlic or it will become bitter. If you are using the red pepper flakes add them when you add the garlic. The red pepper flakes will not make the sauce spicy just give it a little extra kick.

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and stir. Bust and break the tomatoes. Bring to a boil.

 Reduce heat to medium-low and add the fresh basil. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Simmer for about 10 minutes, no longer than 30.

You can let this cool to room temperature and store in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for 2 months. When I freeze, I freeze in small one cup portions so I can use this later for a quick lunch for myself without heating more than I need.

There you go. No need to ever buy another jar of Ragu (although I love their new commericals) and  be that top mom that makes the other moms hate her because she always makes her own sauce.