Pasta Sauce That's Going to BLOW YOUR FACE OFF

The title is just a warning. So, on with the recipe.

Things you'll need to gather:
2 lbs of tomatoes (We had small romas from our garden)
28 0z. can Whole tomatoes with juices
14.5 oz. can Stewed tomatoes (pick one with some of the zesty seasonings!)
1 med Onion chopped
Tons of garlic minced
1 T hot sauce (or more)
1 T crushed red pepper (or more)
EVOO
1 T EACH of oregano, basil, thyme, and sage
1 sprig of Rosemary
S&P to taste

1. First you need to blanch (not like the golden girls) your two lbs of fresh tomatoes. To do that, wash your maters and cut a small x on the bottom of each so they won't burst on ya. Then boil a pot of water and lower them each in. Keep them in there for about 2 min and then remove, transferring to a bowl of iced water. Blanching is simply just to peel them, not cook them.


When they cool, peel them, discarding their skins. Then crush them, with your hands, into a bowl (making sure their juices go in the bowl as well).


2. While your tomatoes sit on the side, mince up all your herbs (removing all the stems of course).


Like so:


3. Then saute your onion in some EVOO on medium heat. When they are tender add the minced garlic and cook for about 1 min. Then add the herbs. Cook for another minute. Keep stirring this around so nothing burns on you.


4. After everything in the pan has mingled, add everything except the tomatoes (hot sauce, red pepper, S&P to taste...)


5. Now here comes the messy fun part! Add your already crushed tomatoes from before. Open up your two cans of tomatoes and, with your hands, crush those into the pot and add their juices.




6. It may look a little soupy at this point, that's okay! In about 30 min time it will all cook down to a nice sauce. So, for the first 15 min, keep the heat on about med/med-low and stir. For the last 15 (or so) min. put the lid on, lower the heat a bit and only stir occasionally.


7. Finally, pair up with whatever cooked pasta that you'd like. This kind worked really well because it kept some of the sauce inside.


For this first time of making pasta sauce (that will hopefully blow your face off) I didn't want to mask any of the herb flavors by adding meat (ground beef, ground italian sausage, etc.) because it was the last "hurrah" of our fresh herbs from the garden. Next time, I think I might get carnivorous! Enjoy.