tomato sauce

Makes 3 cups

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 1 tablespoon cooking fat
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

If you’re serving this sauce fresh, you can substitute about 6 fresh tomatoes for the canned. You can also quickly turn this into a meat sauce: Just add 1 pound of leftover Perfect Ground Meat and 1 cup of beef broth in the last ten minutes of simmering. Serve over Roasted Spaghetti Squash, steamed zucchini noodles, or a pile of wilted spinach for a quick, easy, complete meal.

Heat the cooking fat in a large pot over medium heat. When the fat is hot, add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook, stirring, until the onion becomes translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat, stirring every 20 minutes, until the sauce is thick and smooth, about 1 hour. Discard the bay leaf.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 to 7 days.

✪Sauce Storage If you plan to freeze the sauce, canned tomatoes will actually taste better. The sauce will keep in the freezer for 3 to 4 months, but because ice crystals will get inside the sauce, just a word of warning—it may come out runnier than it went in. You can always thicken it up again by adding another can of tomatoes while it’s reheating.