Got Tomatoes? Here's an Easy Sweet Sauce Recipe

If your garden is overproducing like mine, you'll want to do something with all those fresh, luscious, ripe red tomatoes. We are big fans of BLTs, but a sandwich a day only uses one of those big tomatoes. Of course, there are tacos and salads and sliced tomatoes on pizza and little tomatoes, halved and fried in butter. But even that isn't enough to keep up with the harvest. 

We used to can tomatoes, but we've moved away from that to making batches of spaghetti sauce and freezing meal-sized containers for quick access whenever we want a meal of spaghetti or ravioli. Since this is the height of tomato harvest, I'm sharing our family recipe. (Hint, we leave the skins on for a deeper red and all the nutrients.) You'll need a blender, a large saucepan, and measuring cups and spoons, plus the following ingredients. 

Enjoy!

Sweet Spaghetti Sauce (Meatless & Mild)

4 cups diced fresh tomatoes, skins on, simmered briefly (5 min.) with…

½ teaspoon salt

Cool pot in a water bath. Fill blender with cooled tomatoes and chop.

In a large saucepan (3-4 quart) add…

1/8 cup diced onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

Fry onions in oil in the saucepan until done. Pour chopped tomatoes over onions. Set to simmer. Stir in…

One 12-ounce can of tomato paste, stirring until all lumps are gone

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 packed tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons dried parsley

½ cup water

Simmer until flavors combine. If sauce seems too thick, add another 1/3 cup water. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles.

Sauce freezes well. It also tastes great over cheese ravioli.

If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can use one 28 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes AND one 12 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes.