I have thought about opening my own Italian restaurant because I love to cook and I love to cook Italian food. One of my favorite items to cook is lasagna. I actually cook lasagna for thanksgiving dinner instead of turkey. But whether you are cooking lasagna, manicotti, ravioli, or even pizza, the key is in the pasta sauce. Here is my recipe for great pasta sauce which is the basis for most Italian meals.
I used to use a large soup pan to prepare the sauce but now I use a slow cooker. It is easier because I do not have to stir the sauce as much as I do cooking it over a stove. I do sometimes open the lid on the slow cooker to stir maybe two or three times but other than that the sauce is on its own. You need a food processor for this pasta sauce recipe. And of course you need the slow cooker.
This pasta sauce is a vegetable based pasta sauce. Sometimes I add chicken or beef. Use your food processor to grate four medium sized carrots and three baby zucchini squash; process one large onion with three cloves of garlic and process a half stalk of celery with one bunch of parsley. Place all these all these ingredients on the bottom of your slow cooker which you have set on the low cooking time and temperature.
Now cover the ingredients with two 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes and one eight ounce can of tomato paste. Stir all the ingredients together. Now add the spices. You add one teaspoon each of rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, basil, savory, and sage. Give that a good stir. Now you add about two tablespoons of sugar. The sugar cuts down the acidity of the tomato.
You cook this in the slow cooker for two to three hours at the lowest temperature setting. You can stir the sauce during the cook time a few times but unlike cooking your pasta sauce on the stove top you do not have to come back and keep stirring.
Some pasta sauce purest would never use a slow cooker for pasta sauce but I have tried both and I do not taste a difference in the sauce and it is easier for me to use a slow cooker because I can go off and not worry about the sauce boiling and splashing my stove top.
But if you want to use a stove top method raise the sauce first to a boil and then reduce the flame to a low simmer. And keep stirring the sauce so it does not stick to the pan. Once the cook time is over prepare some spaghetti and try out your sauce I am sure you will enjoy it.
Remember to refrigerate it once it cools down. I place the sauce in a cool sauce pan so it will cool faster. You will have plenty of sauce to last you all week if you are serving one or two. Or if you have prepared the sauce for many guests it may all go at once. Perhaps you will visit my Italian restaurant someday and recognize this pasta sauce recipe.
Author Resource:
As Mississauga restaurants offer some of the finest cuisine, restaurants Montreal also have outstanding desserts. If you’re thinking of eating a one-of-a-kind meal, remember to visit those restaurants! http://www.canpages.ca
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