Homemade Italian Spaghetti Sauce

Hello Residents!!  Hope everyone's week is going smoothly. Prayers to those that need them. I know there are a lot of back to schoolers!  If you are a busy mom, today's recipe is probably not something you will have time for lol.  If you are someone with time and fresh tomatoes on your hands then this is so much more than worth the effort!  I had never undertaken such a task but I was desperate to use mass quantities of tomatoes to help my dad out.  I found this recipe online at iamthatlady.com and as you can see after the recipe I made some changes.  The hardest part of this is the tomato blanching, peeling, cutting up and pureeing in the food processor.  So good, that's all I can say!  Please be sure to read it all the way through before starting anything!    See you on Thursday!  Oh, and I didn't put Italian in the name of this so I mean no offense to someone who knows better about how the wonderful Italians make their delicious sauce! ;-)

Homemade Italian Spaghetti Sauce

Author:  Lauren Greutman
Serves:  8-10
Prep time:  15 mins  Cook time: 3 hours  Total time:  3 hours 15 minutes

3-4 cans of Crushed Tomatoes (either regular or with basil, oregano and garlic) 28 oz. can or 12-15 fresh tomatoes (peeled, chopped and blended in food processor)

4 cloves of garlic
3-5 Tablespoons dried Basil
1-2 teaspoons black pepper
1 Tablespoon of sugar (optional)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Minced Green Peppers (optional)

Heat olive oil in a 5+ quart pot over medium heat, and add the chopped or pressed garlic.

Heat for one to two minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic, then add all the tomatoes, black pepper, basil and sugar.  Stirring often, bring to a low boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 hours stirring often.

For the first half of the simmer time, do so with pot uncovered, then cover for the second half.

Add the cheese, stir in and simmer for an additional 5 minutes or so.

Yields 4-5 Jars of Sauce.

Ok, here's what I did:

To start, I doubled and was really glad I did.  I used 42 red tomatoes.
8 teaspoons of minced garlic
6 Tablespoon dried basil and 4 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
1 heaping teaspoon of black pepper, and I think I will use even less next time.
2 Tablespoons of sugar
4 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 Cup Mama Francesca Parmesan Garlic Grated Cheese (Walmart)
No green peppers

I put everything together as it said BUT I ended up cooking it for about 8 hours to cook the liquid out of it!  The cheese was in for at least 4 hours. Since I was trying to cook out the liquid the sauce only got about 2 hours with the lid on.  It was so worth all the effort.  Honest!  If you get the chance, step out, try something.................try this, I promise your residents will be stoked!