Saturday, May 09, 2009

Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

.
Lunch today. And another spaghetti sauce recipe. Repetitive, I know, but mainly, this picture was too pretty not to post.

The sauce is from home-grown tomatoes, I made and froze it last summer - super easy and super quick way to use up extra tomatoes. (Especially easy if you have a crock-pot/slow-cooker).
.
Handy to know as we start into gardening season once again, right? And you're all putting in a couple tomato plants, right? They grow on the tiniest patio space, you'll be amazed.
And the sauce? It's still fresh and tasty 9 months later - YUM! I served it with Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Angel Hair pasta which is really light and doesn't taste "whole-wheat-ish" at all, homemade garlic bread and some cute little grilled zucchini.
.
Freezer Spaghetti Sauce
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup good olive oil
8 cups chopped tomatoes (remove skins by blanching in boiling water for a few seconds)
1 Tbsp. oregano
2 Tbsp fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 Tbsp sugar or agave
2 tsp. salt or to taste
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
pinch of cayenne
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
Put onion, garlic and olive oil in pan. Cook on low until onion is transparent, this takes a while but any higher and you'll burn the garlic - you want them to cook together. You can add bell peppers too, I don't care for the texture when frozen though.
In large pot (here's where I use my crockpot!!) add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, basil, parsley, sugar, salt, pepper and tomato paste. Cook down for 2-3 hours on low heat stirring frequently if on the stove; if in a crock-pot, cook about 4 hours, and just stir once or twice. I "taste-test" several times during cooking and usually add more seasonings. I then blend with an immersion blender, 'cause my kids don't like "chunks" in their sauce, but it's great as is too...

Let sauce cool. Pour into quart size containers or freezer bags. Store in your freezer about 9 months to a year, supposedly the quality deteriorates after that, but I never have any left anyway.
.
Hope you're all having a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow Blogger-Moms.

3 comments:

The Voracious Vegan said...

Wow, what a great idea to just have something this bright and beautiful stored away in your freezer. And you are right: that picture is gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

I love homemade tomato sauce--this sounds great. I love that you can do it in the crock pot! I will be trying this out for sure :o)

Those zucchini look sooooooooo good!

Courtney

Tofu Hunter said...

I love the way you cut that zucchini, it looks really pretty that way!