Four-Ingredient Tomato Sauce

I have made this recipe 3 times in the past couple of weeks, it's that good. We have a large amount of tomatoes still coming in from the garden and this is a great way to use them up. I've never tasted a homemade tomato sauce that is this good. The fact that it simmers for 4 hours, might have something to do with it! ;) 

This is a great "base" for recipes that call for tomato sauce. You can jazz it up with fresh herbs, or just use it in a basic pasta dish. We made a really good Shrimp and Bacon Spaghetti with Fresh Basil the other night, using this very sauce! (I'll have to share that recipe sometime in the future). Go here for 10 Tasty Ideas for this sauce.You won't be sorry!

Four-Ingredient Tomato Sauce 

(adapted from Simple Bites)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 large cloves of garlic, peeled
6 - 28 oz. cans tomatoes, diced or whole
2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Open cans of tomatoes and using a food processor, purée until smooth. 
2. Pour the tomato purée into a large stock pot and begin heating over high heat, just until it reaches a simmer, then reduce heat to low and continue simmering. 
3. While olive oil is heating over medium heat in a small saucepan, finely chop garlic. When olive oil is hot, add garlic and stir continuously for a minute or two, but do not let the garlic brown.
4. Add about a 1/2 cup of tomato purée to the garlic mixture. Stir and let cook for about 1 minute and the olive oil will take on a golden color.
5. Add garlic, oil, salt, and tomato mixture into the large stock pot with the rest of the purée and stir well. 
6. Simmer on low to medium-low heat for at least 4 hours, until sauce reduces to about 1/3 of the original amount, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove from heat and portion into freezer-safe Ziploc bags or containers, and freeze.

Notes
- At the beginning of your tomato puree simmering, you may notice a good bit of tomato "foam" on top. You can skim this off if you like, but otherwise, it will just cook into the sauce and be fine. 
- As I stated above, you can use LOTS of fresh tomatoes from the garden in place of the canned variety. You'll need about 30-35 decent size Roma tomatoes, or 15-20 large round tomatoes to get the same equivalency.