Homemade Tomato / Pizza Sauce

Fresh, from scratch tomato sauce is one of the easiest things to make.  The list of ingredients is up to your individual tastes and what you intend to use it for.  Below is a simple recipe that I use for both pasta and pizza.  If I'm using it with pasta, I just leave it chunky, if I use it for pizza I blend it smooth - just that simple.  You might notice that I use approximate amounts with this recipe.  With such a simple recipe, it's okay to experiment a bit with how much of each item you put in, but I've found that my ranges are almost fool proof.

Here's what you'll need:

Approx. 2 - 3 cups of Roma Tomatoes (about 8) cut into chuncks
1/4 - 1/2 of an onion, diced (I like yellow for this recipe)
2 - 3 cloves of Garlic
Splash of red wine or beer, depending on whats in your hand!
1 - 2 tbsp delicious bacon grease (or Olive Oil if you like your arteries unclogged)
2 tbsp total Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregeno, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme & Marjoram)
Salt & Pepper to taste
NO SUGAR!

Once you get the hang of it you can adjust this recipe to feed a small army, but start small and see what they like first before you start canning the stuff for your crazy bunker stash.

Using dryed herbs from the garden will hold their flavor better when you slow cook.  If you use fresh herbs, don't add them until you are within 15 minutes of the end cook time.

First, take your diced onions and sautee them in the bacon grease or olive oil until soft.  Add your garlic and cook on medium for about 5 minutes.

Toss in the tomatoes, salt and pepper and herbs.

Cover and simmer for about an hour and a half.

Uncover for the last 15 to 20 minutes and bring the heat up just a bit.  This helps to get rid of some of the excess liquid.  This step is something that you can do longer, shorter or not at all - it depends on how you like the consistency of your sauce.

For a more interesting tomato sauce, add some sausage, bacon or meatballs.  Just adjust your oil/fat levels down in lieu of the fats from the meat.  Sautee your onions and garlic in the drippings from your meatballs, sausage, bacon - whatever it is.  Remember, if you want to cook your meat in the sauce that you need to brown it first or they will just fall apart (unless that's your intention of course).

Time commitment - about 2 hours.