September 27, 2011

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce. . . . super easy!


I wanted to have this recipe posted ages ago....but then life happened!  While you may not have an abundance of fresh tomatoes right now, you are still able to get fresh ingredients at a supermarket or farmer's market and make you own sauce....



This recipe is very easy!!  I use whatever fresh vegetables that I can get my hands on....


For this batch, I used red peppers, green papers, garlic, onions, zucchini, carrots, and tomatoes...




Not all my veggies were completely fresh either....our country store often has a table of not-so-fresh food for pennies and I usually grab those to cook with!


My recipe is from a friend in Germany and I've had it for about 7 years!




My husband took me to Germany for my birthday one year....yes! He's awesome!  I'll have to write a post sometime about that trip and how we travel so inexpensively!


We stayed with friends and Sabine was making this amazing spaghetti sauce.  Everything she made was homemade!  She had also worked a deal with a friend and they would get the leftover produce from the local supermarket.  Instead of the store throwing away the fruits and veggies, Sabine and her friend would get to use them....for FREE!....talk about a deal!






First you want to chop your veggies.....notice.....I didn't even chop them up into small pieces!






Throw them into a large pot....I have a huge pot.  I think that it's called a stock pot and it holds cups of soup, stew, sauce....




Add about 6 cubes of chicken bouillon.  You can also add vegetable bouillon, just add something that will add some flavor...
   


Next, just start shaking on the spices.  I'm a little curious as to why I have dill weed in the pile??  I think that I meant to grab basil for the photo....oops!






You can see from my photo that I didn't measure anything....I just shook various spices on.  You can always add more later depending on how it tastes. Also, you will want to add salt and pepper to your liking.



Next, you just put it on medium-low heat and walk away!  Truly....go make a craft while the wonderful smell of simmering vegetables fills your house!


It will start to look like this.....and I did not add any water to the veggies!




After it has cooked for a couple of hours and your veggies are very tender, you want to either run it through your blender or food processor.  I have a hand blender that enables me to just blend it in the pot....it's SO easy to use!


After blending the veggies, mine was still too watery so I just keep cooking it until enough water evaporated....


I also discovered that sometimes your sauce can taste a bit acidic.  If it has that sharp taste to it, just add some sugar.  Add by the teaspoonful until you get the taste that you like.




I froze most of my sauce in freezer bags so that I can use it this winter.
  
*Did you know that if you fill your freezer bags and then stack them flat on a cookie tray to freeze that they will then store very nicely in your freezer?


I did use some of the sauce to make some homemade pizza....




We use frozen bread dough, homemade sauce, and the toppings of our choice!

Enjoy!

7 comments:

Tips from the Heart said...

Perfect! I was just debating buying another jar of Ragu because it was only .99 but heck, I could make tons for that price on my own! Thanks for the recipe!
-Robyn from http://tipsfromtheheart.blogspot.com

Katie said...

Ummm this looks awesome! I've already pinned it and can't wait to make this version of homemade sauce! :)

Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made said...

YUM!!!! I'm going to whip up a big batch of this this week and freeze it for nights when I work late and need a quick meal! We STILL are picking tomatoes and peppers from the garden! Love the look of your blog by the way!

Tres Chere said...

My stomach is growling! That looked delicious! Thank you for sharing. I am going to have to make that this weekend.

Lindsay said...

Oh, this looks SO good! I am so glad you shared the recipe! Thanks for linking up @ Show & Share!

Marie said...

This looks and sounds so good! Thanks so much for linking up with us at Show & Share! Hope you’re joining us again this week!
http://mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com/2011/10/show-share-8.html

Marie
Mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com

Christine said...

Can't wait to try this recipe!!! Just curious, about how many fresh tomatoes do you use?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...