Fresh Italian Pasta Sauce

26 March, 2010 11:29 AM Posted by MJ
Courtesy of my lovely sister and her husband who used to live in Italy. 

2-4 Mild Italian sausages: (use however many you want, really it just depends on how 'hearty' you want your sauce.
2 cloves of Garlic
1 Onion chopped (I usually chop them in wedges so if someone doesn't like them they can pick them out)
2 Large cans (14oz-ish) Tomato Sauce
1-2 cans of diced stewed tomatoes (I like to use Fresh bottled tomatoes from the garden or fresh chopped tomatoes but you can definitely just buy stewed or diced tomatoes in a can, or chop a tomato from the grocery store)
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp sugar
1 c hot water
1/2 c olive oil
Fresh chopped Basil
1-2 carrots finely grated

Dice the onion and garlic and remove the sausage from the 'skin.' Add the diced onion, garlic and sausage to a large pot with olive oil in it. Sautee until the onions are mostly cooked and the sausage is fully cooked through also (sausage should resemble ground beef or taco meat, if you need to chop it up before adding it to the pot but generally you can just use a spoon to chop it into smaller portions while it cooks.)

Add your tomato sauce, diced or stewed tomatoes, salt, sugar and hot water. Stir well. At this point you should add the chopped basil and carrot. Just use however much you want, I generally use one of those small packages of fresh basil you can get at the grocery store, I think the brand is Living Herbs but really do whatever you want.

Let the sauce simmer for at least 3-4 hours. Every so often keep adding water to keep the sauce the consistency you want. If you feel like it's getting too thick, just add a little water. If you feel like it's too thin, simmer it without a lid to let some of the moisture cook off.

Once it's simmered for several hours you are good to go. You may want to add salt, pepper or sugar to taste. Also, this recipe is up for debate, if you really like rosemary then add some rosemary, maybe you would prefer oregano instead of basil, that's fine too. It's really up to you what you want. You can also make it with steak instead of sausage. It's a different flavor for sure, but it's still delicious. I will sometimes cube a roast or a ribeye instead of sausage. 

1 Response to "Fresh Italian Pasta Sauce"

  1. Cathy Says:

    Can't wait to taste this tonight!

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