Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I just got back from spending the weekend in Logan with the in laws. They let me take all their tomatoes that were ready, home grown onions, delicious peppers, and some zucchini.

My favorite thing to make is home made spaghetti sauce. It is pretty easy, and I just put it in freezer bags and get it out when I want some. The best part is you can hide all kinds of veggies in it.

I will actually post two directions. One that has exact measurement, and mine that I make a huge batch and just add all kinds of things. It turns out different but GREAT every time. I have so many green tomatoes still on the vines every year that I have to pick them and put them in my garage until they are red. This is a great way to use those tomatoes when they are ripe.

The directions are the same for how to cook it but you can either dump in a whole bunch of whatever or do the exact amounts.

1. Puree tomatoes in blender. Start cooking right away. They take anywhere from 2-5 hours to cook down so there is only 2/3rd the amount of juice left.

2. Steam/cook carrots, zucchini, celery, squashes etc.. then blend them up. I have to add some of the tomato sauce that is cooking to help the blender puree them. You can leave it chunky too. I blend all the ingredients so my kids wont notice any thing strange about their "spaghetti sauce" that is packed with goodness.

3. Saute onions, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic with oil. Puree this if you want too.

4. Mix it all together. Make sure the tomato sauce has reduced in size. Take it off the heat. Then add your salt, sugar, basil, and meat. If it is too runny add some tomato paste.

5. Let cool and put in freezer bags. DONE! I do a ton at a time because it is so easy to do a lot.

Measurement recipe

2 lbs of Italian sausage

8 oz of mushrooms, sliced

1 T garlic

2 T salt

1 T pepper

red pepper flakes if you like

1 lb carrots sliced

1 cup celery sliced- I don't really like celery in this but you can.

2 med onion sliced

1 T olive oil

2 T basil

2 T sugar

other veggies- optional- zucchini, peppers, sweet potatoes, etc.

8-10 canned stew tomatoes- if using fresh add more sugar and salt to balance acidic flavor

2 can tomato paste- use only if you need to thicken it up

If anyone has suggestions let me know. We love it.