Rich and Warm Pasta Sauce

Growing up my favorite meal was my mom's homemade spaghetti and meatballs.  My mom let the sauce simmer on the stove all day which made the house smell beautiful.  If rich and warm had a smell, it would definitely smell like my mom's pasta sauce.  When spaghetti and meatballs were on the menu, we snacked all day long on the sauce.  If you were lucky, you got to try the sauce with a little piece of meatball.  We had to be careful not to eat too much so that we could actually eat dinner.  On those special nights, we ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more.  After shoving a few 'last bites' in, we finally gave up, said we were finished, unbuttoned our pants, and praised my mom for making the "best batch of sauce so far".  Then we did it all over again the next day with the leftovers.

We even had spaghetti and meatballs with homemade pizza as our Christmas Eve dinner, we loved it that much.

The recipe actually came from my paternal grandmother.  I'm not sure where she got it, it could possibly be a very old family recipe.  Either way, it is delicious and I'm happy to share my version of a Blount family favorite (and now an O'Toole favorite), my grandmother and mother's Rich and Warm Pasta Sauce.

You will need:

1 chopped onion (red or yellow depending on your preference)
2 jars/cans of tomato paste
4 cans of diced/chopped tomatoes (I use two boxes of chopped tomatoes)
at least 4 cloves of garlic, chopped (I use more, but I LOVE garlic)
1 Tbs olive oil
1-2 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
1-2 Tbs Italian seasoning, divided
1 Tbs balsamic vinaigrette
Pinch of cayenne pepper

The Process

In a stock pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and sauté until transparent (7-10 minutes stirring occasionally).  Add garlic and half of the Italian seasoning, sauté for 2-3 minutes stirring frequently.  Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes.  Let ingredients simmer on the stove for at least 30 minutes and as long at 4 hours.  Add remaining ingredients, stir, and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes or longer. You will need to add salt if you use tomatoes that do not have salt added.

It's that simple!  This quick and clean sauce works well on pasta, spaghetti squash, pizza, and any other dish requiring a rich pasta sauce.  I always have the ingredients on hand because I can make this in a pinch and it's always a hit!

I hope you LOVE this recipe as much as I do.

This is the brand of tomatoes we usually use.

This is the new brand we tried for this sauce.