Quick and Easy Tomato Sauce

I made more mozzarella balls; this time fried in tallow.  That made a big difference.  I liked it much better than frying them in the coconut oil (remember... I don't like to mix sweet with savory).

But I needed a quick sauce to dip them in - so made this:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons tallow (or another healthy fat)*
1 carrot, shredded (and then chopped even finer)**
1 small onion, finely chopped (about 1/3 - 1/2 cup)
sprinkle of sea salt
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes (or a quart jar canned from your summer garden, though may require more simmering time due to water content in tomatoes)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat tallow in a sauce pan and slowly saute the carrots and onions till soft and the onions are caramelized (about 15 minutes).  Add garlic and stir till aromatic (about 30 seconds).

Add the tomatoes and oregano and bring to soft boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the basil and olive oil.  Mix well and serve.  Easy, right?!

* If you don't have nutrient-dense tallow, my second choice would be butter (ideally from grass-fed, raw cream). My third choice would be refined coconut oil (refined so you don't get the strong coconut flavor you would get from unrefined. Sometimes that coconut flavor is awesome, but not in tomato sauce!)  Never use vegetable oils (corn, canola, etc.). Even the beloved (and healthy) olive oil is not good for sauteing. It has too low a smoke point and becomes unstable... rancid... when heated too much.  Save that for the salad dressings... or like in this recipe, after it's come off the heat.

**Rather than using sugar, like some people do, the carrots become slightly sweet when cooked slowly with the onions and helps to reduce the acidity from the tomatoes.  My darling Kristiina turned me on to that great idea.

Since the cooking time is so short (as opposed to simmering for hours and hours), it's a fresh tasting sauce and is so versatile.  You can serve it over spaghetti or angel hair pasta with a side salad and call it dinner. You can use it to make your lasagna or baked ziti. You can add ground meat (about a pound)... all beef, or a mixture of beef, pork, sausage... and call it a bolognese (a rather Americanized version.  Check out this link I found that describes,  and provides a recipe for, a traditional, authentic Bolognese Ragu.  Looks fantastic.)

We just ladled it into a bowl and dipped the amazingly delicious mozz balls in it.  As I said, now that I have tallow in the kitchen, I did a fresh batch of mozz balls to see what the outcome would be fried in it versus the coconut oil like I did last time.  It's awesome!

This recipe makes one quart jar and it would be easy to double up so you can fill an extra jar to have a convenient "just add pasta" meal ready to go for those oh-my-gosh-where-has-the-day-gone-what-are-we-going-to-have-for-dinner kind of days!
Cook once, serve twice!



Linking with Tasty Traditions, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Simple Living, Whole Foods Wednesday, Life in Bloom, Real Food Wednesday, Weekend Wonders, Weekend Potluck, Farm Girl Friday