Rich pasta sauce from your garden’s bounty.
Many years ago when we lived on Fort Bragg in military housing, I had a bountiful back yard garden. I grew everything from herbs and flowers to tomatoes and corn. But the kicker? Almost every last bit of it was grown in containers. In military housing you are not allowed to plant an “in ground” garden, but containers and raised beds are allowed. And buddy, my whole back yard was a garden.
So what do you do with all of that bounty? Well, one of the things I did was made this delicious pasta sauce. With carrots, onions, peppers and red wine, this meatless sauce has tons of flavor in it.
Garden Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 14 medium-sized tomatoes, de-skinned and de-seeded
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 Tb olive oil
- 2 Tb butter
- 2 Tb dry basil, or 1/4 c. fresh minced
- 1 tsp oregano, or 1 Tb fresh minced
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Tb tomato paste
- 2 stalks of celery, halved
- 1/2 c red wine
Instructions
- To begin, heat the olive oil and butter in a dutch oven or a large pot.
- Saute the pepper, carrots, onion & garlic until the onions are soft.
- Meanwhile puree 3/4 of the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and add them to the pot.
- Chop the remaining tomatoes, add those to the sauce. Add the remaining ingredients.
- Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat to very low, and cover.
- Simmer 4 hours, stirring periodically until the sauce is thickened.
- Discard the bay leaf and celery stalks.
- This recipe makes approximately 2 quarts of sauce. You can freeze this in portions for future meals.
Nutritional information is auto-generated and the accuracy is not guaranteed.