I love pasta dishes with tomato sauce as a base, so I usually make a huge batch of tomato sauce to keep on hand for easy preparation. This recipe can be easily doubled or divided in half to suit your needs (it makes about 16 cups of sauce). I save juice containers for easy storage. Often, I freeze half and leave the other half in the refrigerator. I use it in lasagna, spaghetti, stuffed pasta shells and other dishes. It's also great for dipping.
Ingredients
olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
12 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons dried morjoram
4 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes (use Italian or other pre-seasoned varieties for extra flavor)
16 ounces crushed tomatoes with puree
2 cups red wine (I like this sauce with a Chianti)
a handful of fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper
Directions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic and spices. Cook until translucent, stirring occasionally, approximately 10 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and red wine. Simmer uncovered until sauce thickens, about 1.5 hours. Stir every 15 minutes or so, breaking up the tomatoes.
- Add salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste. Add fresh basil. If you'd like a smoother sauce, puree after cooling in a blender or with an immersion blender.
- Can be refrigerated after cooling up to 2 days, or frozen.
Have you tried this with fresh herbs?
ReplyDeleteI have and I actually think this is one of the few times when dried herbs work better. The only one that makes a difference is the fresh basil at the end. When I used fresh oregano and basil at the beginning they didn't stand up to the long cooking time and were a little bitter by the end. I also tried adding fresh oregano at the end like the basil, and that was just too much oregano.
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