The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.

  • Home
  • Services
    • Family Programs
    • Individual Programs
    • Wrap-Around Coaching
    • Meal Preparation, with a twist
    • Workshops
    • What is Health Coaching?
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • About
    • Policies
  • Blog
  • Recipes
    • Cooking Resources
  • Events
  • Testimonials
  • Contact

Basic Tomato Sauce: A Vehicle for Vegetables

September 24, 2013 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

As is true in many households, Italian food is one of our go-to cuisines.  Pastas and homemade pizza are often on our weekly food plan. One of the reasons I like these options so much is that they are very flexible—I can almost always come up with a way to use whatever I have left in the house at the end of the week in an Italian dish of some sort. The leftovers of a meat can be added to a sauce or as a topping for a pizza.  A little bit of ricotta can be used as filling in a pasta or put on pizza. And then there are the veggies as toppings on pizzas, as an extra crunch in a sauce, roasted and mixed in, the possibilities are endless!

And I have learned a trick that enables my Italian obsession: make the sauce ahead of time. There are a number of reasons why this has been such a breakthrough for me: 1) I save a lot of money not buying the jarred tomato sauces, 2) dinner is made a lot faster and there is a lot less stress because I always have the sauce on-hand, 3) I can incorporate a lot more vegetables directly into the sauce than are usually in the jarred stuff, and 4) it tastes SO MUCH BETTER!


 

pasta sauce

I started on this vats-of-sauce kick when my brother introduced me to the amazing Babbo Basic Tomato Sauce recipe.  I started making double batches of the stuff about once a month and freezing it in smaller portions to be used for whatever I needed: pizza sauce, marinara sauce, a base for a sauce with other additions to it (veggies, meatballs, etc.).  I then I started to play around with it to sneak in some more veggies—adding more carrot, some green pepper, etc.  Now I use this sauce almost once a week in some way, shape, or form.

Some ideas on ways to use the sauce and add even more veggies:

1)   Super Veggie Pizza Sauce: heat up about 2 cups of the sauce. Throw in a ½-1 cup of steamed broccoli or spinach. Puree all of it together with an immersion blender, food processor, or blender. Use in place of pizza sauce on your pizza.

2)   Roasted Veggie Sauce: Chop up some of your favorite roasting vegetables into bite-size, or a little smaller, pieces.  Roast them.  Toss them into the sauce and serve on your favorite kind of pasta.

3)   Use this sauce in the crock pot veggie lasagna.

It really is versatile and fun! Enjoy!

Basic Tomato Sauce
 
Save Print
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
40 mins
Total time
45 mins
 
Author: Jessica Braider
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 7-8 cups
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped into ¼ inch dice
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced (the original recipe suggests 4 cloves, which is a bit much for me, but if you love garlic go for it!)
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
  • 1 medium to large carrot, shredded
  • ½ green pepper, shredded
  • 2 (28 ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
  • Salt, to taste
Instructions
  1. In a 3 quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme, carrot, and pepper, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.
Notes
This is a single-batch, which usually feeds my family of four for two meals.
3.3.3077

 

Filed Under: Dinner, Feeding Kids Tagged With: healthy, pasta, pizza, tomato, Vegetables

« The Dinnertime Dilemma
Food and Community »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe:  

Jessica Braider

Hi! I'm Jessica. I love delicious food that is simple and easy. As a busy mom, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and tastier! Read More…

logo
Food Advertisements by
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
logo
Food Advertisements by

Blog

  • BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!
  • Zucchini & Eggplant Pie
  • Lessons Learned from Hospital Food
  • Vanilla Mini-Cupcakes with Tangy Chocolate Glaze
  • Grilled Fennel and Red Onion Salad
logo
Food Advertisements by

Subscribe

Get my posts delivered directly to your inbox!

logo
Food Advertisements by
my healthy aperture gallery
recipe redux

Tags

Beans black beans broccoli carrot cheese chicken cooking corn dessert dried cranberries Easy eggplant eggs family feta food waste fruit greens healthy healthy eating holiday holidays kale kids leftovers mexican oats onion parenting parmesan pizza quick self care snacks soup Spinach stress sweet potato time management tomato Vegetables vegetarian walnuts yogurt zucchini

Copyright © 2022 The Balanced Kitchen · Foodie Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in