At the end of August, without fail, I get this crazy urge to organize, declutter, and donate things. The rest of the year I’m usually content to overlook my own chaos and disorganization, but once the back to school season hits, I turn into that domestic goddess I always wanted to be. I can do anything! Even if it doesn’t last very long, it feels good to start a new season with a clean slate.
Eric has always been the tidy, organizer in our relationship, so whenever he sees me tearing stuff apart he follows suit creating an equally large mess on the floor beside me. A natural born organizer can never pass up the chance to organize, you know? So this past weekend we spent a full day giving our office an overhaul, which led to furniture reorganization, which led to an Ikea trip to buy a cabinet. Why does organization always seem to lead to an Ikea trip? And more importantly, why do we insist on going the busiest weekend of the year? We are suckers.
Feeling on top of the world after our office clean-up, we went through the bedroom closet and donated a bag of clothing and then we semi-solved my kitchen storage issues. Total organizer’s high. I can see why some people become addicted to organizing. If only it would rub off on me a bit longer.
This is the year I change for the better and stay organized. I say this every September. Oh well.
In food related news, I don’t know why it took me so long to make my own tomato sauce from scratch. Shame on me! I don’t want to jinx it, but I feel like my kitchen mojo is back now that I’m only creating recipes for the blog again. It’s such a great feeling not to be zapped of creativity. I just have all this renewed energy to create, create, create.
The secret to this sauce? Sun-dried tomatoes. Gosh, I love them so. They turn a run of the mill fresh tomato sauce into a rich and creamy concentrated sauce with so much depth of flavour. I really couldn’t believe the difference in taste before and after adding them in. Instead of just stirring the chopped sundried tomatoes into the sauce, I decided to puree them and emulsify their flavour throughout. Oh my lanta. Once I stirred the sun-dried mixture back into the sauce it was transformed into something only dreams are made of. You really have to try this!
Thick & Chunky Tomato Sauce from Scratch
Yield
1 large or 2 small servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A few simple ingredients can create the most delightful homemade tomato sauce! The secret to this recipe is blending sun-dried tomatoes with a scoop of sauce and then stirring it back into the pot. The result is a thick and creamy tomato sauce with a ton of flavour unlike any other tomato sauce. There's no need to skin the tomatoes for this recipe, but I like to quickly discard the seeds before using. Chop the tomato into 4-5 large wedges and then push the seeds out from both sides and discard. Proceed with dicing as usual. If you don't have oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, feel free to use dried - but be sure to soak them in water until soft and drain before use. You might want to bump up the olive oil to 1.5 tablespoons to make up for the reduction in oil. Lastly, this batch only makes 1 & 1/4 cups - I would suggest doubling it because it doesn't last long!
Ingredients
For the sauce (makes 1 + 1/4 cups):
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 large sweet onion or 1 small yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 3 large tomatoes, seeded and diced (about 3 cups diced)
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, minced
- 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 6)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
For the noodles:
- 1 medium zucchini, spiralized or julienned or 1 serving cooked pasta or 1/2 cooked spaghetti squash
Directions
- Add the oil, onion, and garlic into a medium pot and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes and increase heat to high-medium to bring to a low boil. When the mixture boils, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes, uncovered, until most of the water cooks off. Watch closely, reducing heat if necessary and stirring often.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes into a food processor along with a ladle of the tomato sauce. Process until mostly smooth. Stir this mixture back into the tomato sauce in the pot.
- Stir in the minced basil, oregano, salt, and pepper, and optional red pepper flakes to taste. Continue cooking until thickened to your liking and then remove from heat.
- Serve sauce over a bed of pasta noodles, zucchini noodles, or spaghetti squash noodles.
Tip:
Note: For how to julienne or spiralize zucchini (and the tools I use for the job), see this post.
Yum! I can use up some of the rest of my tomatoes from
My garden for this! Looks so delicious!
I love that you spiralized the zucchini- and this sauce looks delicious! I love making my own sauce and adding whatever fresh herbs I can get my hands on, pureed veggies, and ground up almonds for that meaty texture I sometimes miss from red sauce!
I’m a sucker for a good marinara sauce. I haven’t made any in years but I’m going to make this up and freeze a few pints to use throughout the next few weeks!
There’s nothing like fresh homemade tomato sauce! My grandma used to make it all the time and it was the best. I prefer making my own rather than eating out of the jar. I can’t wait to try yours!
Whenever we have fresh tomatoes on hand, we make fresh tomato sauce, nothing can beat that. I’ve never tried adding sun dried tomatoes though, so I’ll make sure that your tip gets some follow-up ;-) Since I love pesto made of sun dried tomatoes, I think I’ll love it in regular tomato sauce to!
I love this!! I will try it next week in place of pasta for carb loading. Thank you so much for sharing.
Ooh, love the combination of fresh and sun-dried tomatoes! The texture of that sauce looks amazing too!
Love, love, love sun-dried tomatoes! On a salad, in your Goddess Bowl, in tomato sauce, etc.! Had something like this the other night, straight from the garden, complete with some additional sautéed eggplant, topped with some nutritional yeast and toasted walnuts – superb!
Loving the daily posts :) So exciting to see a new delicious recipe that I can’t wait to make every day! So many store bought tomato sauces are loaded with unnecessary ingredients…homemade really is the best (especially with this recipe!!).
Every artist goes through a block especially when they need lots of content; but at least your back! I thought I was the only one still obsessed with tomatoes I love a good homemade sauce especially a chunky one my favorite.
Any chance I could use the sun-dried tomatoes in a package instead of the oil-packed ones? I just so happen to have only the dried variety on hand and I bought a ridiculous amount of tomatoes at our farmer’s market yesterday and this recipe is calling my name today.
I made this recipe yesterday using the dry packaged sun-dried tomatoes instead of oil-packed ones. It worked really well! I rehydrated mine by pouring boiling water over them and letting them sit for about 10 minutes. I would have actually left them longer to soften them further, as they were a little tough to blend. But the sauce was really delicious.
Oh my gosh, I haven’t had sundried tomatoes in SO long! This sounds lovely! And awesome that you’re back in the recipe creation/cooking groove. It’s amazing (and kind of annoying) how the ideas can sometimes just dry up at the most inconvenient times, isn’t it!? As for fall cleaning, I’m totally the same way. It’s sort of like spring cleaning a few months too late, but I love doing it because I totally get that cleaning high that you described! I’m kind a sad that my summer clothes will be going away soon, but a closet clean-out always feels good too.
Never mind I just read your note at the top of your recipe. off to start cooking!
Delicious, I’m sure! I just went to Ikea (we have one about an hour and a half away in Sacramento) for the first time a couple of months ago on the way home from Napa Valley. We were there for hours and I wanted to buy everything!
Out of curiosity, what spiralizer do you have? I got a cheap-o one online and it broke after only a few months because I use it so much!! :/ Looking for a good brand that will last more than a few months!! =)
Sun dried tomatoes just take it to the next level! Love the zucchini noodles too : )
You are on a roll! Got some tomatoes from my garden (love the ease of the skins on) !
Looks tasty.
For some reason all I could think of was Marge Simpson saying “the secret ingredient is salt!” :P
Your pasta sauce looks so thick and full of texture and I love tomatoes so I know I’d love this. And on spiralized zuke noodles. Haven’t broken out my spiralizer in far too long. Thanks for the inspiration to dust it off! Have loved all your Mofo posts this week!
I love making my own sauce! I use a lot of tomato paste in mine – really gives the sauce a big hit of flavor!!