At the rate of sparing myself the embarrassment of my overgrown garden-I did not include any pictures of the inspiration of this post. The late harvest of tomatoes in my home garden more than my husband and I can possibly consume! We have made BLT's, salad, salsa (fresh and canned)...we are just out of ideas! This is situation has given way to my newest cooking project: homemade spaghetti sauce. Generally speaking, jarred pasta sauce isn't a food we think of as "unhealthy," simply because it is not a horrible choice of food. Obviously, it is high in vitamins and often counts as a serving of vegetables, as tomatoes are the first ingredient. This is all good and fine-however, like most mass produced foods, there will be additives and words we cannot pronounce, often in the form of sodium and sugar derivatives.
| Traditional Jarred Sauce | ½ c serving | Homemade Pasta Sauce |
| 80 | Calories | 80 |
| 2.6g | Total fat | 3.5g |
| .5g | Saturated Fat | 0g |
| 0g | Trans Fat | 0g |
| 0mg | Cholesterol | 0mg |
| 480mg | Sodium | 10mg |
| 12g | Carbohydrate | 11g |
| 7g | Sugars | 5g |
| 2g | Protein | 2g |
See the above nutrition comparison for a store bought sauce versus my homemade version.
While it isn't perfected or professional quality by any means, the reduced amount of sodium is staggering! This is directly related to using fresh ingredients. There wasn't a strict recipe for developing this sauce; it was based on my palate preference, so it is completely customizable for your personal taste. Methods will remain the same, just tweak the spices!
Homemade Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 12-15 fresh tomatoes (peeled, chopped, smashed)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3-5 Tbsp of dried basil
- 1-2 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp dried parsley
- 1 Tbsp dried oregano
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a 5 quart pot over medium heat, add garlic
- Heat for 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic, then add all the tomatoes, black pepper, basil, parsley and oregano. Stirring often, bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 hours stirring often.
- For the first half of the simmer time, do so with the pot uncovered, then cover.
- Place sauce in gallon freezer bags; place flat on freezer rack.
**This recipe is to be kept fresh or frozen ONLY. This recipe is not suitable for HOME CANNING projects.