Jani's Homemade Tomato Sauce

Makes approx 6 servings

Serving size: 1/2 cup

6 large tomatoes
1tbsp of tomato paste (equals about 3-4 squirts)
1 green pepper diced up
1 small onion diced up
1 tbsp of crushed garlic
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of flat leaf parsley
pepper & salt
1 tbsp of sugar

**Optional: replace the fresh tomatoes with 1 32 oz of crushed peeled tomatoes, 1 small can of diced tomatoes, and 1 small can of tomato sauce. This may yield a larger amount of sauce.

1) Boil tomatoes with the skin on. Skip this step if you are using canned tomatoes.

2) Let tomatoes cool enough so you can peel off the skin. Again skip if you are using canned tomatoes.

3) In a sauce pan add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add diced up onions.

4) Once the onions are transluscent add the garlic (do not add garlic too early or it will burn and taste bitter).

5) Dice up the tomatoes into small pieces (discard stem & leaves ) and add to the sauce pan.

6)Add diced up peppers to sauce pan.

7) Bring to a boil. Once sauce comes to a boil turn down to low and simmer.

8) Add the sugar. Salt and pepper to taste.

9) Add the dry herbs. If fresh herbs wait until sauce is ready to be served to add.

**It's best if you let simmer all day or at least 3-4 hours. The longer the sauce simmers the thicker it will get. Stir occasionally.

Dress it up!

I love to add chicken to my sauce instead of hamburger. I cook up the chicken first until it is cooked through then will chop it up into pieces and add to the sauce. it's delicious.

For vegetarians, you can add strips of carrots to the sauce by using a peeler, this makes the sauce more sweet!

Freeze it!

I sometimes double this recipe and freeze it.