April 5, 2016

A Fast and Easy Tomato Sauce Recipe

I love tomatoes. Seriously, I could eat them like apples. And an easy tomato sauce recipe? Sign.me.up. Of course, I prefer it fresh over canned, but I am so not into complicated recipes. I used to think making tomato sauce was hard, but I was wrong. Here’s an easy tomato sauce recipe I’ve been making since my college days that doesn’t require a bunch of ingredients or time and it’s easy on the wallet! I’ve included some affiliate links below in case you want any of the stuff I’ll mention here.

Here’s what you’ll need for the easy tomato sauce recipe:

3 large tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon basil (fresh or dried is fine. I was out of fresh, so I used dried)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Pasta (I used organic wheat linguine that doesn’t actually taste like cardboard, but angel hair or whatever floats your boat is cool, too)
Shredded cheese
Makes 2 servings

You don’t need to worry about exact measurements. Add more of what you like or put in some mushrooms or peppers and skip what you don’t.

Here’s what to do:

Get a pot of boiling water ready for your pasta and add a little olive so it doesn’t stick, a quarter of a teaspoon is fine if you want an exact measurement
Rinse the tomatoes then put them into a pot of cool water and bring it to a boil (you can cover the pot, or not – I don’t)
When the water is brought to a boil, drain it from the pot then put cool water in. Take the tomatoes out and peel them – the skins will come off really easily. Chop them up. I use my Kyocera ceramic knife. Best.knives.ever.
About this time throw your pasta into the boiling water and leave it in there per the directions on the box – I boil for 11 minutes with my Cooks Standard – it heats water FAST, drain it and cool it for ten minutes – don’t rinse it with cool water! Toss it with a bit of olive oil. (Note: the pasta box had over 13 ounces of pasta in it. I used about 8 ounces)
Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a non-stick skillet (my Calphalon non-stick is the best) and crush your garlic cloves or chop them. Sautee’ them for a short time. Some people brown them and some leave them opaque. Either way is fine. Add the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and the basil. Let it simmer for a few minutes. You can just keep an eye on it. Once it looks like this, it’s pretty much done:

Serve up the pasta onto a plate, top with the tomato sauce and sprinkle with your favorite shredded cheese. A fresh, homemade and easy tomato sauce recipe. Even my husband (who doesn’t like tomatoes) eats this one!

What variations would you make? Do tell!