Somewhat stealing Joe Stain and Tanner's Mom's idea I'm letting Mom do some food blogging on my blog. Now food is always i good theme, right? So, here goes!
Homemade Tomato sauceYou get lots of good, pre-made tomato sauces. But when you make your own you know exactly what actually goes into it. The secret to a yummy sauce is cooking it for a long time - you'll have to start making this before you get hungry. But make lots, and keep it in the freezer for the next time!
You need:
- a large pot with lid
- a couple of tins of tomatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- an onion
- a couple of carrots
- a couple of cloves of garlic (more if you're one of them garlic junkies)
- a glass or two of red wine
- basil
- oregano (or whatever spices you prefer)
Fry the onion off in some olive oil. You can use vegetable oil, but the olive oil lends a good flavour. I use my beloved hand blender on the sauce in the end so I chop the onion up rather roughly.
Toss in garlic and carrots... and then the wine. I used some really good ecologic wine. It tasted yummy, but I didn't finish it last night so I thought making tomato sauce would be a good idea! I'm not fond of sauces tasting like wine, but when we cook the sauce for hours like this, it gives such a good flavour in the end!
Add the tomatoes and a handfull of dried basil and dried oregano...
You'll have to let the sauce simmer for no less than an hour, preferably several hours. I generally cook it for like six hours. This make the flavour very concentrated sooo good. Then I wizz it up with the hand blender and make a lovely, creamy textured sauce. Taste and add more spices and a touch of salt or sugar if needed.
My beloved hand blender! I don't know what I'd do without this thing... (I prefer my sauce smooth, pieces in my sauce make me freak.. *blush*) If you like chunky sauce you can just use choppet/crushed tinned tomatoes and chop you additional ingredients a bit finer than mine. Or very rustic if you'd like that of course!
Use some of your sauce for today's dinner and ladle the rest into containers. It'll keep for a day or two in the fridge. Maybe you'll use it for pizza today and spaghetti sauce tomorrow? Making this with no added fluid other than the wine(and you could skip that if you want to) make this sauce real thick and cramy and perfect for pizza. Cheaper, tastier and healthier than the pre-made stuff.
TIP: If you, like me, generally cook for just one person freezing some of it in an ice cube tray/bag make it real easy to just thaw a little sauce to make a one serving pizza.
I fried some lean ground beef, chucked in some of the sauce and some frozen corn and served with some cucumber and whole wheat spaghetti.
We're seen so much nice colors on the blogs out there, lately! Here are a few of ours!
Mom went for the close-ups this time! These bright red ones are rather pretty, huh?
Quite the contrast between the leaf that hadn't changed yet and the red ones!
And lots of leaves had already left the tree and taken a nap on the grass!
Okay, so in our household the bestest spot to be is between Mom and the computer. It tend to have its own seat on the couch so Mom can do her multitasking during boring commercial breaks.. Se how brudder has squeezed his pretty big body down there?
Muahaha... He had to get a drink! It's mine, mine, MINE!
What are you laughing at??? Huh??
These are little cat toys with chords in their tummies attached to a ring sticking out of their butts. When you pull the string out the toy vibrates. Well.. Mom and I have not seen these as ducks or snails before, but I used to LOVE this sort of toys as a puppy - just that they used to be hamsters - and I would pull and pull the string holding the toy in my paws. (Don't worry, Girl Girl, I won't try pulling strings out of your butt! I promise!) So mom got a couple of these - as they were cute as well, if not as round and easy to hold as the hammie ones I had as a pup..
Fry the onion off in some olive oil. You can use vegetable oil, but the olive oil lends a good flavour. I use my beloved hand blender on the sauce in the end so I chop the onion up rather roughly.
Toss in garlic and carrots... and then the wine. I used some really good ecologic wine. It tasted yummy, but I didn't finish it last night so I thought making tomato sauce would be a good idea! I'm not fond of sauces tasting like wine, but when we cook the sauce for hours like this, it gives such a good flavour in the end!
Add the tomatoes and a handfull of dried basil and dried oregano...
My beloved hand blender! I don't know what I'd do without this thing... (I prefer my sauce smooth, pieces in my sauce make me freak.. *blush*) If you like chunky sauce you can just use choppet/crushed tinned tomatoes and chop you additional ingredients a bit finer than mine. Or very rustic if you'd like that of course!
Use some of your sauce for today's dinner and ladle the rest into containers. It'll keep for a day or two in the fridge. Maybe you'll use it for pizza today and spaghetti sauce tomorrow? Making this with no added fluid other than the wine(and you could skip that if you want to) make this sauce real thick and cramy and perfect for pizza. Cheaper, tastier and healthier than the pre-made stuff.
I fried some lean ground beef, chucked in some of the sauce and some frozen corn and served with some cucumber and whole wheat spaghetti.
