I found a great sauce recipe and I made it this weekend.  I just had to share the recipe with you. This is based on the recipe Big Joe’s Homemade Sauce found in Big Joe Henry’s Big Jersey Cookbook.

I have come across many different sauce recipes online but none of them seemed quite right. I prefer a savory sauce and tend to shy away from sweeter sauces. I think this sauce is amazing! I recommend pairing it with my Rosemary Bread. Who needs pasta just dip the bread in the sauce. 🙂 Though I haven’t tried it, and I fully intend to, use this sauce on your pizza!

This recipe will make a lot of sauce, I froze the majority of mine in large plastic containers (in the photo below*) and I also used two servings with dinner.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

• 1 Medium onion, chopped
• 4 Cloves garlic, minced
• 8 oz Baby bella mushrooms, chopped
• 1 Palmful or 4 tablespoons basil
• 1 Palmful or 3 tablespoons oregano
• 1/2 Teaspoon Black pepper
• 2 Cans diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 Small can tomato paste
• 3 28 oz Cans crushed tomatoes
• 3/4 Cup dry red wine
• 1 Pinch sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Saute onions, mushrooms, and garlic with a bit of salt.
2. When onions are translucent add basil, oregano, and pepper. Stir until combined, you will smell the spices.
3. Add diced tomatoes, stirring constantly, followed by tomato paste. Again, stir until combined.
4. Add crushed tomatoes, stirring constantly.
5. Add wine, sugar, crushed red pepper flakes and stir until combined.
6. Bring the pot to a boil.
7. Lower heat to simmer.
8. Stir every 5-10 minutes for 30 minutes. This prevents the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
9. Simmer stirring every 20 minutes for 2 to 3 hours.

Note: I find it to be incredibly helpful to have my veggies chopped, cans opened, spices measured and set in a row on the counter top so that I’m not missing steps or burning food. Once you get to step 2 its a roller coaster of pouring, stirring, changing temperatures, boiling, and more stirring. It’s not difficult to make but is much easier if prepared.

*I doubled the recipe for the quantity you see in the photo below.