Crock Pot Fresh Tomato Sauce

You’re probably tired of hearing about my excessive amount of tomatoes, but even after making salsa…I still have TONS! Every time I eat one I swear two more are ripe. I’m not complaining, I just needed to figure out something to do with them!

If there’s one thing I love more than desserts, it’s pasta. Hot, cold, italian, asian…any kind of noodles will do! Since I eat so much, I figured “let’s make some sauce!”. It’s also still just a little too hot to heat up the house with the stove on for hours, so to make things easier I wanted a crock pot version.

I looked up a few recipes, but they either called for canned tomatoes (doesn’t solve my problem) or blanching and peeling the tomatoes first (defeats the “easy” part). So I decided to wing it. How hard could it be?!

I chopped up some onions and garlic, seeded (but did not peel!) the tomatoes, added some spices, then noticed the red wine on the counter. Well sure, let’s go with it. Fun fact: I always put the red wine in my noodles at Mongolian BBQ. I swear it makes all the difference.

And that’s it! Let the crock pot do its thing and go about your day. Maybe stir occasionally for good measure, but seriously. Nothing else to do! Unless you want to drink some of that red wine you just opened.

This sauce is a much deeper red than the store bought sauce and has such a rich flavor. I definitely ate this as a snack after snapping these pics! It’s amazing how easy it is to get such a deep flavorful sauce. Serve this at your next dinner party and your guests will go on and on about how you must have slaved over a hot stove all day. If you don’t tell my secret I won’t tell yours 😉

~Stephanie

Crock pot Fresh Tomato Sauce (makes ~4 cups)

• 4 c diced and seeded tomatoes
• 3/4 c diced onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• 12 oz can tomato paste
• 3/4 c red wine
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp basil
• 6 fresh basil leaves

1. Chop tomatoes, onions, and garlic.
2. Add all ingredients minus the fresh basil into crock pot and stir.
3. Let simmer on high for about 6 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Chop fresh basil leaves and add during the last few hours or at the end.
5. Use immediately, store in refrigerator for a week, or freeze in freezer safe containers for up to six months.