Homemade Tomato Sauce

A couple of weeks ago our tomatoes were booming, so I made a batch of homemade tomato sauce.  It didn’t last long and it was delicious.  There is truly nothing like fresh home grown tomatoes and sauce!

I decided to leave it “chunky” but you could blend it up after it’s cooked if you want a smoother sauce.  Or you could blend up half and leave the other half chunky.

So here’s my recipe:

Homemade Tomato Sauce (sugar-free)

1 Tbsp. olive oil or coconut oil

1 whole onion

10-12 tomatoes ( used part plum and “round” tomatoes – don’t know what these are called)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried marjoram

1tsp dried or 2-3 Tbsp. fresh parsley

1/3 cup freshly chopped basil

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp honey

2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional) This is not GAPS -friendly but you can use 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in combination with a little honey.

2-4 cloves garlic, to taste – minced

1 tsp salt or more to taste

black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. If you don’t like tomato peels in your sauce, you’ll either want to peel them or dump them into boiling for a minute or so.  Drain the water and then let cool.  The skins should peel right off.  I don’t mind the skins so I skipped this step.
2. Chop the onion and then saute in the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir occasionally and reduce heat if they begin to burn.  Cook for 8-10 minutes or until soft and translucent.
3. You can chop the tomatoes up or you can just plop them into the pot with the onions.  I do the latter and then cut them up coarsely with a spatula.  It’s up to you how chunky you like your sauce.  Add the herbs, salt and pepper, balsamic or apple cider vinegar, paprika, and garlic.  Let cook over medium-low heat for 20 or so minutes, or until the tomatoes are cooked through the flavors begin to meld.  When it is almost done, add the honey so that it doesn’t get cooked, and the fresh basil leaves.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
4. Enjoy with gluten-free pasta, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash or cook it down and blend for pizza sauce.  We ended up adding it to almost any dish we were eating because it was so yummy.