Caroline94535

I made a wonderful (no modesty here! LOL ) pasta sauce last night.

I used 2 1/2 quarts of home grown tomatoes from last summer's garden. I had blanched some, roasted others, and froze them all.

For the sauce base I used a mix of blanched cherry tomatoes and the larger, roasted tomatoes. The roasted tomatoes added such a wonderful smoky flavor.

After simmering the tomatoes down a bit, I added:

6 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 carrots, diced They added a hint of sweetness to the sauce.

1 can of Rotel, just to add a kick. I didn't have any fresh or canned hot peppers on hand.

1 T. or so of chives
Big dashes of parsley
1 t. or so of red pepper flakes
Several grinds of black peppercorns
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. salt

1 lb. of browned hamburger for the carnivore I live with. (I pre-browned the burger in the oven the day before while I was roasting an eggplant.)

I turned the burner down as low as it would go and let all the flavors melt together for a couple hours or so.

This sauce is to die for. If it were for just me I could have skipped the meat, and added okra and some of my dehydrated zucchini.

Come on summer; I really need fresh tomatoes. I'll be roasting and freezing a lot more of them this summer.