Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausage (Plus the Secret to Great Tomato Sauce Revealed!)

I don't make a ton of pasta dishes with tomato sauce, but when I do I always make my own sauce. Seriously, if all you've ever had is some nonsense out of a jar, you are missing out. Pasta sauce is ridiculously simple to make. The secret is letting it simmer for a loooooong time. Like 90 minutes or more.  I simmered this one for 2 hours. It's also pretty hard to screw up. The steps are basically 1) Throw a bunch of tomatoes or tomato product in a pot. 2) Add generous amounts of your favorite Italiany things and a big splash of good red wine. 3) Simmer. 4) Simmer some more, just don't let the bottom burn.

That's dried parsley, basil, red pepper flakes, and freshly ground pepper about to be stirred into the sauce. I used a good Californian Cabernet Sauvignon for the wine.

This particular sauce is thick, complex, and a bit spicy with the addition of red pepper flakes and hot Italian sausage. If you'd like it milder you could just sub sweet Italian or leave it out for a vegetarian version. The recipe makes a big batch too, 10 -14 servings and can easily be frozen and reheated. The original version that it's based on has almost 1000 5-star reviews on food.com.

Serve this over some al dente pasta with some crusty bread, and the rest of the wine, and you've got comfort food at its best. 

I just have one plea to make. Please, please, please don't overcook your pasta. Pasta should not be cooked until it's pale and mushy and falls apart when a fork gets anywhere near it. It should hold its shape and have some chewiness left in it. This is going to mean checking your pasta 4-6 minutes before the box says it's done and tasting it to find out. Or if you have access to fresh pasta it's going to mean the briefest of cooking times, like a few minutes max. I personally love fettuccine noodles, but you could also go with the more traditional spaghetti or maybe penne. Ok, I've said my piece about pasta.






















Oh yeah, one more thing. You should add water based on how long you let this simmer. Mine was fine with 1 cup for a 2 hour simmer, but you may need more depending on how quickly your sauce reduces and the length of time you let it simmer for. Just give it a stir once and a while, and if you see its way too thick and sticking to the bottom like crazy, add a little more water.

Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausage
Serves 10-14
Adapted from Sharlene W~s recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs hot Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 15 ounce cans stewed tomatoes
2 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup water
3 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
salt, to taste (probably in the neighborhood of 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon depending on how much added salt there is in your tomato product)
1/4 cup good red wine (Cabernet recommended)
parmesan, for topping

Directions

1. Remove the sausage from its casings and cook in a large pot. Break the sausage into smaller bite-size pieces as you cook.

2. Add the onions and saute until translucent.

3. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or until fragrant.

4. Add everything else and bring just to a boil. Simmer the sauce for a long time (if you have to get dinner on the table sooner, go for at least 30 minutes). Stir occasionally and add water as needed.

5. Enjoy over pasta with some parmesan!

Jeremy + Tomato Jam

Today, I've been married for 2 years. Ideally I'd be telling you about the super fancy pants dinner I have planned for the occasion. But my dad has been in the hospital and we spent the weekend visiting him in Florida. (He's out now and he's going to be fine, but I had to see him in person to reassure myself.) So instead, I thought I'd dedicate this post to my husband Jeremy and share a new recipe that we both really love.

This is how most of the world views Jeremy. A coffee-inhaling software engineer with his iphone permanently attached to his hand:

If you get to know him better, the next picture shows what he's really like. A 5-year-old masquerading as an adult that thinks that robots and Morse code are super cool and that uni-cycling indoors is a great idea. (He also makes questionable fashion choices like wearing socks with Sperrys.)

Don't let all the nerd street cred fool you though, he is a great husband. He keeps me in the caffeine, walks the dogs, and fixes the html when I start screaming at Blogger because it's putting everything in italics.

And after two years, we've got some important stuff figured out: like coffee and watching our dogs play fixes a lot of things, when I'm mad I'm always right, and breakfast is always a good option.

When it comes to food, we like a lot of the same things. But I definitely have the sweet tooth, while Jeremy is all over the savory. Which is why this tomato jam recipe is so perfect: it's both.

This was my second canning experiment. And it was so good I promptly went out and bought an obscene amount of tomatoes to make another batch. I thought I might give them as Christmas presents, but the way we're eating through the jars maybe not.

The procedure is so ridiculously simple too. Basically chop a lot of tomatoes and reduce them with sugar and spices. Although I followed the recipe and did this on the stove top, you could probably do this in a big crock pot too.

The better your tomatoes, the better this is going to taste. Lucky I've got an organic tomato hookup.

Slicing and dicing is so much easier with a mandoline. 

A double batch worth of tomatoes:

A lot of sugar, plus cinnamon, cloves, ginger, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, and salt.

After cooking down: 

 Served with toasted slices of baguette and cheese. We really liked it with goat cheese and bleu cheese.

The taste of this tomato jam is sooooo good. There isn't really anything store bought that I can compare this to. It's sweet like jam, but acidic from the tomatoes, and it has a little bite from the red pepper flakes. The cinnamon, ginger, and cloves are really pretty tiny amounts compared to the weight of the tomatoes and just enhance the tomato flavor. If you're a fan of pepper jellies, you should really try this. If your not going to can it you could easily scale the recipe down.

Tomato Jam
(adapted slightly from Food in Jars recipe)
Yields approx. 3 pints (about 6 cups)

Ingredients

5 pounds tomatoes finely chopped
3 1/2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Combine everything in a non-reactive stockpot and simmer over medium heat for 1 to 2 hours stirring occasionally. You'll know you've got the right consistency when you've got a large sticky mass on the bottom of the pot.

2. Refrigerate for immediate consumption or ladle into hot jars leaving a 1/4 inch headspace.

3. Wipe rims and apply lids finger tight. Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.

4. Cool jars, test seals, and store in a cool, dark pantry for up to one year.