Feeling Saucy!

Most of you know that I have been an Italian in training for almost 7 years now...wow time flies!  Josh's Dad is an Italian immigrant and brought with him some amazing recipes.  I have spent many years trying to perfect his pizza and I'm getting very close (or Josh just likes to humor me).  I have made his sauce twice before with little success getting it to taste just right.   

We have a huge garden going this year and had a large picking of tomatoes so I knew it was sauce time.  I decided not to try to replicate Gaetano's sauce and instead take my own path.  I found a recipe online and decided to make my own tweaks to it.  The first hurdle was seeding and dicing the tomatoes, all 42 of them.  You probably wouldn't have to seed them but I hate tomato seeds!

Fresh basil from the garden along with our tomatoes!

Seed, seed, seed all day long...

The final product, worth every second!

Time for chopping onions...1/2 an onion in and I was dying so I had to equip myself with an onion gas mask!

  Now for the big show!  I coated the bottom of my deep soup pot with EVOO and sauteed my onions until they were translucent then added my garlic.

Next add in about a cup to cup and a half of red wine.  This wine was left from a gift we got from Chris and Kelly.  I added most of what was left of the bottle, probably a little more than a cup and a half, but you can't have too much of a good thing :)  I saved the last few swigs for the chef! (insert Julia Childs voice here)

Simmer the wine till reduced by about half and then dump in all the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 2 hours.

I had some extra help in the kitchen from my assistant.  Sorry she is naked but we are potty training so it goes with the territory.  At least I made her sit on a kitchen towel!  LOL!!

After two hours of glorious smells and a few taste tests from me it was done, I'm pretty happy thought I think it is a little sweet.  I whizzed it with my immersion blender a few times to smooth it out a little.  I may reduce the brown sugar to 3 tablespoons next time.  It made me enough for 3 large servings, two of which I froze in ziploc bags. 

Sweet Tomato and Basil Sauce


Ingredients (add in this order):
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Minced Garlic
2 Large Onions, Minced
1 Cup Red Wine
3 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
4 Tablespoons of brown sugar
5 Lbs of tomatoes seeded and diced (or three cans diced tomatoes and 3 cans tomato sauce)
1 Cup Chopped Fresh Basil

Enjoy!!!