Spaghetti Sauce

[Jafo232]

Since tomatoes are the ingredient of the week, I guess I will share with you all, the spaghetti sauce that I actually am in the process of cooking at this very moment.

My sauce changes just about every time I cook it, as I suspect does most peoples. Sometimes you want more of this, less of that, this, that, etc.. Here is what I made today:

• 3-4 pounds whole tomatoes (mostly plum) fresh from the garden.
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped lightly.
• 1 large red onion, diced.
• 2 medium green peppers diced (again, fresh from the garden ).
• About 4 tablespoons fresh basil, roughly chopped.
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano.
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme.
• 2 medium carrots, minced. (I usually put them in a small food processor and mince them as much as possible).
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed.
• Salt, pepper.
• Extra virgin olive oil.

Prepare the tomatoes by cutting off the caps, and slicing an X on the bottom of each one. In a large pot of boiling water, add the tomatoes and blanch for 1-2 minutes or until the skin starts to peel. Place the hot tomatoes into a large bowl of ice water. After a minute, remove the skins from the tomatoes and put the fruit into a large sauce pot.

Mash the tomatoes with a masher lightly. Don't go over board, the cooking process will break down the tomatoes too. Cook the tomatoes on medium high and reduce by a 1/3.

While that is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In a large sauce pan, add some of the olive oil and then the sausage. Cook the sausage while breaking it up into the smallest pieces possible.

Remove the sausage to a plate that has some paper towels on it and discard the grease. Wipe down the saucepan removing any little pieces of sausage that may be left over. By this time, your tomatoes should almost be ready.

Add enough oil to the sauce pan to coat the bottom, heat to medium. Add the peppers and carrots. The carrots will soak up a lot of the oil, so you may need to add some more if it gets dry. Remember to scrape the bottom of the sauce pan while you are cooking, to get that flavor from the sausage you just cooked. Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes.

Stir the tomatoes in. Add the sausage in steps until your satisfied. You don't want to add too much, but it depends on how your tomato sauce turned out. Some will have more volume than others. What ever is left over, eat.

Add the herbs last and bring the sauce to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer (very low) and cover. Cook for 2-3 hours on low. Serve on top of pasta, or you can use it for lasagna.

[jglass]

Wow this sounds delish.