While I have been know to buy a couple of bushels of tomatoes at the end of summer and get busy with a full-day project of making and bottling my own tomato sauce, I didn’t do it last year and my homemade sauce has run out. I then turned to using bottled tomato sauce from the grocery store. The taste just wasn’t the same and I wanted to find a solution for a fresh tasting, but quick sauce.

I have created a version that uses canned tomatoes that tastes pretty fresh. This is my recipe.

Jean’s Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 – 28 oz can chopped tomatoes
• 1 small cooking onion chopped
• 1 heaping tbsp basil pesto

Method: 

1. Allow the garlic to sit for 10 minutes after chopping before you add it the heat, to maximize the cancer-fighting contents.
2. Heat the oil on a pan on med-low.
3. Add the chopped onion and garlic and let it soften – about 5 minutes.
4. Add the can of tomatoes.
5. If you like a chunky sauce then leave it as is, otherwise, use a submersible hand held blender to get the consistency that you like. Alternatively, you could use the blended tomatoes in the can.
6. Allow this to simmer until you need it. It will get thicker the more it simmers. I usually let mine go about 10 minutes (while I wait for the pasta to cook).
7. About 5 minutes before serving add 1 tbsp of pesto – either homemade or jarred.

Enjoy!

I love recipes that contain only healthy ingredients and this is one of them. Garlic and onions are members of the allium family and contain sulfur-containing phytonutrients. Also, tomatoes are famous for their high level of lycopene – a cancer fighting carotenoid. Lycopene is especially known to help combat prostate cancer. The basil in the pesto is high in antioxidants. Olive oil is a healthy fat which is part of the Mediterranean diet which has shown many positive health effects. I hope you try and enjoy this recipe!