Caroline94535

I made a wonderful (no modesty here! LOL ) pasta sauce last night.

I used 2 1/2 quarts of home grown tomatoes from last summer's garden. I had blanched some, roasted others, and froze them all.

For the sauce base I used a mix of blanched cherry tomatoes and the larger, roasted tomatoes. The roasted tomatoes added such a wonderful smoky flavor.

After simmering the tomatoes down a bit, I added:

6 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 carrots, diced They added a hint of sweetness to the sauce.

1 can of Rotel, just to add a kick. I didn't have any fresh or canned hot peppers on hand.

1 T. or so of chives
Big dashes of parsley
1 t. or so of red pepper flakes
Several grinds of black peppercorns
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. salt

1 lb. of browned hamburger for the carnivore I live with. (I pre-browned the burger in the oven the day before while I was roasting an eggplant.)

I turned the burner down as low as it would go and let all the flavors melt together for a couple hours or so.

This sauce is to die for. If it were for just me I could have skipped the meat, and added okra and some of my dehydrated zucchini.

Come on summer; I really need fresh tomatoes. I'll be roasting and freezing a lot more of them this summer.

Tartan

Nothing like tomatoes in the dead of winter!

AZ Jane

I love to make a basic sauce, then throw in extras at the end. I love shredded chicken in spaghetti sauce over angel hair pasta

NiaJane

Love those homegrown tomatoes! We've been enjoying salsa we made last summer with produce from the garden
Your sauce sounds wonderful!

Halo

Sounds yummy. Will have to make some real soon. I guess canned tomatoes will work as I always can them instead of freezing. Thanks for posting it.