Meatless Monday – Homemade Pasta Sauce

If there’s one thing we all love, at least in my family, it’s a delicious pasta dish smothered in a yummy marinara sauce.  What heightens the level of enjoyment is when that sauce is made from scratch with love, sweat, and a sore wrist from slicing and dicing. The other thing that makes it so much better to make your own sauce is the fact that you will have leftovers for a second meal in the week or you can freeze some for meals further in the future. 
Now, I’m no Italian or anything, but my family tells me this sauce is pretty darn awesome.
Here’s what you need:

• 1 large green pepper (getting mine local right now excites me), diced
• 1 large yellow onion (again, local, exciting), diced
• 1-2 garlic cloves (and you guessed it, local and super, super healthy), minced
• 1 large can tomato sauce (around 28 ounces) – plus half a can of water
• About 3 cans of tomato paste (6 oz.) – plus equal amounts of water
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons oregano (or I love to use an Italian mix of herbs – great added flavor)
• parmesan cheese
• Optional – Field Roast Italian Vegetarian Grain Meat Sausage

Here’s what you need to do:

1. In a large pot set at medium/low heat add the tomato sauce, tomato paste and water.  Stir and add some salt, pepper, and oregano.
2. While that begins to heat to a simmer, heat some olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.
3. To the skillet add the onions, green peppers, and garlic – heating until soft.
4. Add the mixture to the sauce and stir. Add a bit more salt, pepper and oregano.
5. Depending on your preference you can add more water for a thinner sauce.
6. Taste, taste, taste….after all, it has to be just right when you feed it to your family, right?
7. If desired, add the Field Roast Sausage.

I let this simmer on the stove all day long, stirring occasionally, also adding salt, pepper, and oregano to taste as the day goes on.  The smell is amazing – be warned!  You can also add some freshly shaved parmesan cheese into the sauce for an added zing of flavor, or just wait and add it on the final dish.
You can use this sauce with any pasta, make a lasagna, or even have it on hand to make homemade pizza.  There’s are so many options and the amount will be really generous to allow for some freezing.  Now, if you will excuse me, while that simmers I need to make an apple pie for dessert.  We picked 30 pounds of apples yesterday and they are taking over our kitchen!
Happy Meatless Monday!