Universal tomato sauce

Sometimes recipes that require cooking something before making the main part annoy me. This is one of the reasons I don't like making beans from scratch, because I have to cook the beans as an entirely separate process before making the actual dish, like hummus or soup or chili or whatever.


Dishes requiring tomato sauce of some sort are a major culprit as well ("Major Culprit"), like baked pasta dishes. Oh sure, I could just use a jar of some branded pasta sauce, but I refuse. (I know, I just make it harder on myself.) So despite what I just said about not wanting to make a dish before making the main dish, I do go through the effort to make this fairly simple and universal tomato sauce because it can be used for many purposes.



I saute some chopped garlic and crushed red pepper in olive oil, then dump in a can of crushed tomatoes and sometimes a little whole or diced tomatoes for texture (I often give it a whirl in a food processor though, so it's not too chunky).


Salt, pepper, dried or fresh basil, fresh parsley and sugar round out the seasonings. Sometimes I like just eating it with plain spaghetti noodles. For this particular meal, I tried to "healthen" it up a bit by mixing in some arugula.

But this meal isn't what this sauce is about--the sauce becomes important in its leftover form, my own version of branded pasta sauce that can be used for many other purposes. It's good on it's own, but so much better as part of something else. Wait for it...