Today I successfully made spaghetti sauce from scratch and oh my goodness is it delicious!!! I started by coarsely chopping about 8 cloves of garlic, 2/3 of a large carrot & 2 stalks of celery & a bell pepper (I used two small costa rican peppers since I didn't have any bells) & mixing those together. I had 17 small/ medium tomatoes to start. But did end up having to go to the store for about 10 more small (roma sized ) tomatoes.
I cut a small cross into the bottom of each & should have cored them here, but I forgot lol-so make sure you core them as it's a bit of a pain to try & remove the cores after this step, but it is possible so don't fret if you forget too ;-)
I placed the tomatoes into boiling water for about a minute--well... I was instructed about a minute, they were in there closer to four, try to keep it clsoer to a minute as they slightly over cook if you leave them in too long. Then dumped them into a colander & poured cold water over them. Then peel them & dice them, removing the seeds. If you like, you can do this over a bowl to trap the juice/water from the tomatoes in case your sauce is too thick near the end, you can add some of this to thin it out. I have frozen veggie stock cubes I would have been able to use to thin if I needed to ;-)
While you're peeling these, you will want to cook the diced garlic/celery/carrot/pepper mixture along with diced onions if you like (I used half a sweet yellow onion, a pretty large one) I forgot to take a pic of this step X( sorry folks.. anyhoo, then mix this cooked veggie mix and the diced tomatoes in a large pot & use a potato masher (or your hands, my sister likes to use her hands & I admit I think I will next time too, I had done that before & I like the way it mashes them better)
Add any italian type seasonings you like, I have a mc cormicks italian mix I like, I also added some extra oregano & basil, and some fresh chopped parsley. One day, when Matt & I have our home and garden, I will have all fresh seasonings to add--yummy!!!
let that simmer for about an hour. Then if you like, you can cook some mushrooms, I also cooked some zucchini in a bit of butter & italian seasonings
Once those are just about half way cooked, just starting to soften, mix them in with your sauce
I literally let this simmer on the stove for about 3 hours to let it reduce & thus thicken up & I am so glad I did because it came out so delicious!! During the last hour of cooking, I added a good amount (adjust to your preference so specific measurements are not needed here)of coarse sea salt, a touch of pepper & a few tablespoons of white granulated sugar to sweeten.
This came out so incredibly delicious! So hearty & robust yet also sweet!! I will let it sit in the fridge over night & tomorrow I will cook up some ground turkey with some italian seasonings & pour it over some pasta to try it out!! If you don't want to let it simmer for hours on the stove, adding a can or two of tomato paste will thicken it also. I did not come up with this on my own lol!! Between the advice of my 'not' older sister & my friend Jade, I finally have spaghetti sauce! Thanx ladies for your help!!! I am so glad I have such experienced people in my kitchen corner to help me out ;-D
