Homemade Tomato Sauce

Hearty meat sauce on a bed of spaghetti squash. 

Making your own tomato sauce is pretty time consuming, but quite a simple dish to prep for.  It's a nice weekend or day-off sort of meal to make for the family.  If you are feeling brave, and enjoy having things in the crock pot while you work, you can always prep the night before, or morning of.  I have not done this recipe in the crock pot, but I'm fairly certain it would work just lovely. 


4-5 nice sized cloves of garlic diced
2 small onions finely chopped
1 small carrot finely chopped
1 celery stick finely chopped
1 green pepper finely chopped
8-10 tomatoes with skins removed* and diced
1 lb of lean ground beef
1 cup red wine
A good handful of fresh basil chopped
Tbsp fresh chopped oregano
A few sprigs of fresh parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste


Brown the ground beef, drain fat and set aside. Pour about 2 tbsps of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the garlic, onion, carrot and celery.  Cook veggies for 5 minutes, or until soft.  Add the tomato and herbs, stir well and let simmer uncovered for another 5 minutes before adding the ground beef and wine.  Turn down the heat to a low setting, cover the pot and let simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.  Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.  Serve on a bed of spaghetti squash, rice or corn pasta.




*Skinning tomatoes is pretty darned easy.  Score the bums of each tomato with a little X (not the end where the stem would come out), place them in a bowl and pour boiling water enough to cover the tomatoes.  Place some Saran wrap over the bowl and wait for about 5 minutes.  Carefully take a tomato out and peel back the skin starting from the X down toward the stem end (using a towel for this part saves your hands from getting burned).  If the peel gets a bit tough, just peel away with a paring knife.