Fresh and Simple Tomato Sauce

I learned the basis of this recipe while living in Italy. Just a few fresh ingredients, a little time, the right tools and some LOVE! Use this sauce as a base for pasta sauces, pizza sauces, soups, and more!

INGREDIENTS:

3 tsp Italiano Pronto
2 large cans whole peeled tomatoes
2 medium carrots, grated
4 stalks of celery, diced small
1 large onion, diced small
5-6 TBSP olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Simple ingredients always make the best food. Let the flavors of the food you're cooking be the star. No need for a ton of garlic or lots of oregano. That's great for some, but this is great for all!

Grate the carrots with your cheese grater. This makes it a lot faster and easier than chopping them. Hopefully you have a food mill. If you don't have one, see my blog on having the right tools in your kitchen. A food mill can be so useful in many ways. A decent one will cost you about $40-$60, but you'll have it forever if you take care of it.

Dice the celery and onion small, about 1/4" or smaller. Grab a large sauce pan, place it on your stove over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and let it warm up. Once it's nice and hot (not smoking hot, but hot enough to make a sizzle sound when you add the veggies) add the carrots, celery, onion and 1 teaspoon of Italiano Pronto. The blend has the perfect amount of herbs and spice - making it so easy to cook this recipe. Saute the veggies for about 10-12 minutes. Don't burn them - so keep an eye on the pot and stir frequently.

While the veggies are sauteing down, open the tomatoes. I like to take a sharp knife and "cut" the tomatoes a little bit while they are in the can. If you don't mind getting a little dirty, you can always squeeze the tomatoes in your hand as you add them to the pot. Add both cans to the sauce pan.

Grab your food mill (or a blender if you don't have one, but be prepared to have an orange sauce, not red! Blenders seem to make the sauce orange in color) and place it over a bowl large enough to hold the sauce. Pour the tomato sauce into the food mill. Most likely you will have to do 1/2 of the pan at a time. This mills down all the large tomato, onion, celery and carrot piece into a smooth sauce, leaving just the right texture to it. Once you have milled all of the sauce, scrape the bottom of the food mill off to get all the little bits of veggies into the sauce. Pour it back into the sauce pan and cook over low heat for another 15-30 minutes - again, the longer and slower you cook it, the more flavor. It will also thicken as you cook it down. If you're using it for a pizza sauce, cook it down for about 30-45 minutes. It will thicken up perfectly for pizza sauce.I like to layer flavor in my recipes - so add the final 2 teaspoons of the Italiano Pronto seasoning blend. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. The slower and longer you let it cook over low heat, the more flavor you will get.

Taste for seasoning. If you want you can add a couple grinds of freshly-ground black pepper and a little salt if you like! Toss with pasta or chill to use later! Enjoy...