Home » Food & Drink » From Field To Table » Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce

© Bob Ewing

The balcony, community garden plot and the raised beds are prepped and ready to go. There is still about a month to wait before the bulk of the plants go outside or seeds go into the ground. We can expect frost up until June 4-8 so while some of my peas are out everything else is indoors.

It has been cold and dry the past three weeks. Some hail, a little snow, a drop of rain, mostly strong winds racing dark clouds over the Harbour.

My living room window is sprouting tomato, basil and kale seedlings eager to be connected with the earth and fulfilling their promise. Chili peppers (an experiment) and sage are waiting.

We make and eat a lot of tomato sauce. Basil, which we talked about last week and bay laurel, which we begin to explore this week are two among other essential ingredients. No passable tomato sauce can be made without them.

I love tomato sauce. I eat pasta just to have a reason to make and enjoy this marvelous food. Fortunately, tomato sauce goes great with so many other foods. More about that another day. A bonus is the fact that fresh tomatoes are good for you and even better that they increase their food value when cooked.

Canned tomatoes are one of the few canned foods that I buy in bulk whenever case lots come on sale. I look for the low sodium brands.

Canned tomatoes are fine for sauce. I prefer using a combination of crushed and diced tomatoes but whole canned tomatoes can work as well. Tomato paste is essential. Have plenty on hand and when making sauce make extra so you will have a quick healthy food handy.

The choice of pasta is yours. You can also add sauce to soups and stews to spice up the flavour. Herbs such as thyme, oregano, basil, bay leaf, black pepper and crushed chilies enhance the taste but only two are absolutely necessary, basil and bay leaf.

Bob's Tomato Sauce:

1- tablespoon olive oil,

1- medium onion diced,

10 large fresh button mushrooms diced or 1 can 14 oz,

1 medium green pepper diced,

3-celery sticks diced,

1- bay leaf, fresh, but dry will do,

dry or fresh spices, basil, thyme, oregano, pinch dry chillies,

1- can tomatoe paste 5.5 oz,

1-can diced toamtoes 28 oz,

1-can crushed tomatoes 28 oz. add oil to slow cooker set on high,

add diced onions, celery, green pepper to cooker, let cook until onions begin to brown, then add mushrooms, cook 3 minutes,