Homemade “Quick Cook” Sauce

I have a few different variations of pasta sauce that I make from scratch.  This is one of my “quick cook” sauces that I use when I don’t want to make a meat sauce.  I’ve also made a variation of this sauce (omitting the diced tomatoes) as a homemade pizza sauce.  It’s very diverse and can even be used as a dipping sauce for Italian food items, etc.

This particular sauce recipe does make quite a large amount of sauce.  I usually make a large batch to use in a recipe and then to have on hand for another dish (pasta with meatballs or pasta with sausage, etc.).  The great thing is, this freezes perfectly fine so if dinner plans alter I can easily put the extra sauce into the freezer without worrying about it going to waste.  This is also typically the "base" to my meat sauce, although with meat sauces I do change up the ingredients and add in extras.

Essentially there are no real points plus values associated with it according to recipe builder, but I do give a serving of sauce 1 points plus just to be on the “safe side”.

1 points plus value. ½ - 2/3 cup servings.

1 medium onion, diced

2 large 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes

2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes, garlic seasoned (drained of excess liquid)

1 small 6 oz can tomato paste

1 small 4 oz can tomato sauce

2 tablespoon minced or crushed garlic (or adjust to your taste)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

Pinch red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon sugar

Non-stick cooking spray

On medium heat, spritz bottom of soup pot with non-stick cooking spray and add in onions and garlic.  Cook for a few minutes until the onions begin to soften and the garlic begins to become flavorful.

Add in all canned ingredients and stir to combine (make sure tomato paste is evenly distributed to avoid having clumps of tomato paste). Add in dry seasonings, stir to combine.  Let simmer and taste the sauce.  Adjust seasonings based on your taste buds.  Typically I end up adding more pepper, salt, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.  I use a pinch of sugar just to take away some of the acidity from the tomatoes.

Since this is a “quick cook” sauce I usually let it simmer for 30 minutes before turning off the flame.