Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce (Low Fat)

Stop canning around and try this simple recipe!

Complexity Level:  Easy

Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce

What You Need:

10 Roma Tomatoes

5 Cloves Garlic, prssed to crush

1/2 Yellow Onion, chopped

1/2 Leek (the bottom half), chopped

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp White Pepper

1 tbsp Sugar
4 Basil Leaves
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Butter

1 tsp Olive Oil

1/2 cup Tomato Paste

1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

To start, place the whole tomatoes, garlic, onion and leeks into a sauce pan with 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer and cover.  Let this cook 10 minutes.

While the sauce components are simmering start boiling your pasta.  This way you are multi tasking and saving time!  Cook your favorite pasta to a nice al denti state, drain, and set aside for the sauce to come!

Remove from heat and strain (saving the water).  Gently peel the skin from the tomatoes and discard.  Place all the strained ingredients into a blender with 1/2 cup of the water saved.  Add the sugar, basil, salt, oregano, red pepper flakes,  tomato paste, and olive oil, and puree. 

Because this is hot, hold the lid down hard on the blender.  Otherwise you may end up painting the walls in real life edible wallpaper (the tomatoes taste like tomatoes!)  If you want a thinner consistency, add more of the water.  Finally after all is pureed, add the butter and pulsate 8-10 times to give the sauce a nice shine!  Toss in your favorite pasta, and add salt, pepper, and cheese to taste!

You are more than welcome to add heavy cream in place of the water, and add parmesan cheese while pureeing to give this an even bolder taste!  We wanted to keep it simeple and healthy, so we didn't add these to our sauce.

I added artichokes, carrots, and yellow squash to mine!  Yummmmm ;)

Because this is a fresh sauce, you will notice it is not as red as your favorite canned brand.  The reson for this is you didn't add any additional colors or preservatives, so don't fret!  This sauce is way more natural and better for you!

Mangiamo!

Aimee Gonzalez