As much as I hate seeing summer coming to an end, I love this part of the year because it’s time to preserve and can, can, can! I’m just beginning to harvest my tomatoes, however, with so many gardening buddies, I usually end up with excess tomatoes, peppers, and zuchinni’s. This past week, a friend gave me an entire bag of fresh tomatoes. Before they spoiled, I whipped up a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce to eat and freeze for the winter. The best part about preserving homemade sauce is knowing where all of your ingredients came from. In my sauce, everything except the olive oil, either came from my garden or from my friends at the farmers market. 99% organic, Iowa spaghetti sauce. Yeah, baby!! (1%, Spanish Olive Oil)
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
This recipe makes enough sauce to freeze two, 24oz bags
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 onions, chopped (fresh from my garden)
- 8 garlic cloves pressed or minced (fresh from Tom and Mary Cory, Cory’s Lamb)
- 6 tablespoons, chopped fresh thyme leaves (fresh from my garden)
- 3 medium carrots, finely shredded (fresh from Yang’s chemical free in Pella)
- 13 – 15 tomatoes, chopped – (fresh from my garden and a friends backyard garden)
Method:
- In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onion and garlic an cook until the onion is soft and transparent, about 8 – 10 minutes.
- Add the thyme and carrot and cook 5 – 8 minutes more or until the carrots are soft.
- Add the tomatoes and simmer until they start to break down.
- Once they start to break down, with a potatoe masher, mash them to release the rest of their juices.
- Bring to a boil, stirring often.
- Lower the heat and simmer for 30 – 40 minutes until the sauce thickens.
- Use on your favorite pasta or when the sauce cools down, freeze for later use.
Like that you added carrots to the sauce! Sounds wonderful, and it would make it nice and sweet. Yum!
you can't beat home made sauce love the 8 garlic cloves!, I freeze mine too
I never thought about using carrots in my tomato sauce…nice idea!!!
Ok..I just about have my new blog up…learning new computers and their systems is mind-boggeling!
Like you, I am up to the chin with tomatoes and this is the first year that I have canned any. I have a Vittorio Strainer that seeds and skins the tomatoes in one process, all I have to do is quarter them (or in some cases cut them into eighths!)and it makes a nice smooth sauce. After I can these 14 jars of peppers, I'll attempt to post my recipe and pics!
Diana, we are on the same wavelength! I love this and will use it right away for the leaning tower of tomatoes taking up space on my kitchen counter. 😀
My freezer is getting full, but I keep thinking ahead to when I get to have blueberries and peaches in the middle of winter. 😉 Thanks for the recipe, friend.
I definitely love harvest time…such bounty and promise for future meals…ahhhh. This sounds delicious 😀
I love making my own spaghetti sauce. I can't remember the last time I bought spaghetti sauce in a jar.
I really need to start doing this. What a treat for wintertime!
That sauce sounds fantastic!!!
This looks great – such a nice alternative to the bottled stuff. Sadly, we've been hit with a blight here in the northeast and many tomatoes have not survived 🙁 I'll be saving this recipe for next year, though!
Thanks for the great comments 🙂
So, I guess it isn't necessary to peel the tomatoes? I've always used canned tomatoes to make my sauce because I thought I had to go through the whole deal of peeling them.
I love making tomato sauce with ingredients from my yard and freezing it. When I pull it out of the freezer when it's cold outside, it instanty brings back memories of summer… 🙂
I love the idea of adding carrots to tomato sauce, sounds excellent!
This is a great recipe. Nutritious and yummy. Thanks for sharing a winner. Congrats you are on Today's Top 9 🙂
Thanks for sharing the recipe. My tomatoes are coming on strong. -Tien
Did you bother to peel them? -Tien
This looks so yummy!