pasta/pizza sauce
We all know that once you start reading nutrition labels (and I use that term loosely, we could call them fake food labels) it’s alarming just how much “garbage” the food industry goes out of their way to include in foods to make them taste better. They have turned our food into tasteless and nutritionally void bottled and/or canned abominations, so they add loads of sugar (fake sugar), salt (over processed salt), coloring (fake color), you see where I’m going here. Fake-ness all over the place at any cost to our health…but mega dollars going into their pockets. Follow the money, folks…it’s always about the money. Period. Anyways, since we started reading food labels…we been making more and more of our own things we used to just buy off the shelves.
One of those items we used to buy ALL THE TIME was pasta/pizza sauce…because, how easy is it to just open the jar and heat it up. Haha…ya, except once you read the labels on them, eyecarumba what a mess! Easy to open, but not so easy on our poor bodies! Remember the rant from the previous paragraph…yep, understood!
I started making my own sauce and it’s far better tasting not to mention better for our bodies! When available, please use fresh tomatoes…absolutely! We’ve planted our tomatoes, and will eagerly await their abundance later this season, but while we wait, we do use the canned, organic variety to make our sauce.
The key to this sauce is the simmer…letting all the flavors simmer and “marry” makes all the difference. There’s a base portion of the recipe and then the add-ins of flavor that we like. Add what flavors you like to the base – experiment! Don’t rush the process. Plan to make this on a day when you can spend some time on the process, taste as you go. It makes bunches, so make it…enjoy the process…enjoy the smell of your kitchen…enjoy the abundance you can freeze to use in a pinch…and then mostly – enjoy the fact that you’re taking steps to improve your own health: make/eat/enjoy real food!
Rant over…recipe to follow, thanks for reading to this point and please enjoy this! Use it on the amazing Capello’s pasta (pictured) – on top of your favorite Paleo pizza crust* – Paleo Chicken Parmesan…oh the possibilities! Mix it up and add flavors you enjoy and leave out what you don’t like…that’s they way real cooking works!
*Here’s a couple links for two of our favorite Paleo pizza crust recipes that we like to us! They both use Otto’s Cassava flour – so your mouths and tummies should be happy either way! Otto’s Cassava Flour Pizza Crust by The Domestic Man (Russ Crandall) & Otto’s NY Style Pizza directly from Otto’s website!
pasta/pizza sauce

super rich and tasty pasta or pizza sauce
Credit: backporchpaleo.com
Ingredients
- 2 T Chosen Foods avocado oil or olive oil
- 1 sweet onion (Vidalia, walla walla), diced
- 5-6 cloves of garlic, diced
- 9½-10 c tomatoes (fresh – cooked and peeled or organic canned)
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 1 large carrot, finely shredded (adds some sweetness)
- 2 T Red Boat Sauce
- ½ t dried basil
- 1 t dried parsley
- 1 t dried oregano
- 2 t Redmond Real Salt
- ½ t pepper
- ½ c Marsala wine
- 2 c bone broth (homemade is best, we keep our frozen in cubes and toss em’ in) ~~~~~ Our add in’s
- 2 t additional Red Boat Fish Sauce
- ½ c additional Marsala wine
- 1 T balsamic vinegar
- handful of chopped fresh basil – adds some amazing color
- handful chopped fresh parsley – as does this one
- dash of garlic powder, oregano, rosemary, dried sage & chipotle chili flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Add avocado oil and diced onion to large stock pot, cook and stir occasionally till a yummy caramel color. Caramelizing the onions will add a depth of flavor, it’s not necessary but you’ll be glad you did! Add a bit more oil if you need to, you don’t want crisp onions!
- Once onions are caramelized, add in garlic and cook and stir til fragrant, watch the garlic as they can burn very quickly, you just want them to get fragrant and soften a bit.
- Add in the rest of the base ingredients, stir well and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and let this loveliness simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once this has simmered, use an immersion blender and puree till all ingredients are smooth. You can use a blender, but please do this carefully in small batches…hot liquid in a blender can cause a hot explosion and some pretty major burns!
- From here, taste!!!! Always taste first! Decide on the additional flavors you want to add and toss them in and stir.
- Let this simmer for another 10 minutes and taste again!
- We add lots of dried herbs from our garden, but prefer to use fresh basil and parsley for the amazing color (and taste) they add to this sauce. You do eat with your eyes first!
- We bottle up in glass pint jars and freeze what we’re not going to use. Tadah…you now have some amazing pasta/pizza sauce!