Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

 It always amazes me how much better homegrown vegetables taste compared to store bought and when hubster brought home a big bag of organic tomatoes from a generous co-worker's garden, I was thrilled. We've tried so many times to grow tomatoes on our little apartment patio without much luck, so it feels like a real treat when people share their crops.

Beautiful, aren't they? But I was a little worried that we'd have a hard time finishing them off before they spoiled. That's when hubster mentioned that he'd always wanted to try making spaghetti sauce from scratch. I'd never done it before either, so of course I went on a Google hunt for recipes. I didn't use a specific recipe, but I did need a basic idea of what to do.

First thing's first, those tomatoes needed peeling! An old trick my mom taught me long ago is to give soft fleshed fruits and veggies a quick bath in boiling water to loosen their skins.

All they need is a couple of minutes. I suggest around 3, as hubster and I left them in the bath for 5 minutes and they felt a tad too soft.

Once done, transfer them to a cold water bath so they get cool enough to touch and the skins will peel right off for you.

Attack of the naked tomatoes!

Now you'll want to chop them up. It doesn't have to be pretty and the size of the sections is up to you. I like chunky sauce, so I went with large cuts.

Here's the base recipe hubster and I used:

5 lbs tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar (I used Stevia. Shhh, don't tell hubster!)
Spices to taste (we used basil, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and some other stuff. We tend to get carried away with the spice rack!)

I threw everything into my crock pot. I'm sure all this would work just as well in a pot on the stove, but to me, spaghetti sauce always tastes better the next day when I'm chowing down on leftovers for lunch. A good overnight soak gives all the ingredients a chance to get cozy and love fest-y. So, I set my trusty crock pot on low and hubster and I went to bed.

And BLAM! We woke up to this:

No, you're not seeing things and the cooking fairy didn't add mushrooms.When reheating for dinner, you can add anything else you want. When I make Italian food using store bought sauce, I'm always stuffing extra veggies into the mix. Spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc... No reason to treat homemade sauce any different!

Here's the yummy sauce in action, topping some beef ravioli:

Bonus: Remember the garlic olive oil in the last post? I brushed it on the bread pictured and then sprinkled a little Parmesan over it before toasting it in the oven. AMAZING!