Homemade pasta sauce from scratch

I love pasta, and before I started eating more healthy I would just pop a pot of fabric stuff in a pan, heat it and be all happy about how good it tasted. Ugh! That’s what an overload of sugar, salt and all the E-numbers make us do: get all addicted to it. What was I thinking??? Ever since we start to eat fresh, I actually know what food really tastes like, and what is supposed to taste like: FRESH, pure and with so much flavor! Now, you can either chop and cook the tomatoes with or without the skin, but my boyfriend made me try it without, and it is sooo soft and creamy. Love it! Feel free to leave the skin on, chop the tomatoes and continue from step 4 on, but you might as well want to give it a try ;)

What you need for 4 servings:

• 1,5 kg tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, minded
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• oregano or Herbes de Provence to taste
• 1 chopped red pepper
• worcester sauce to taste optional and to taste
• chopped basil to taste
• pink himalayan salt and black pepper to taste
• tabasco to taste
• 2 bay leafs
• mushrooms as many as you like
• 500 gram minced meat
• cream/yoghurt to taste

Instructions

1. For blanching the tomatoes, cook a big pan of water, remove the twigs from the tomatoes and cut a tiny cross in the bottom.
2. Place a big bowl in the sink and let the water run.
3. When the water is cooking, place 2 or 3 tomatoes in at a time and when you see the cross in the tomato wrinkle after 10-15 seconds, get them out and place in the bowl with running water. Continue until you’ve done them all, then remove all the skins and chop the tomatoes in small dices. I leave the seeds in.
4. Heat the oil in a big pan and heat the onion for about 3 minutes on medium fire.
5. Add the garlic for a minute and then add the tomatoes and oregano/herbes des Provence.
6. Let it cook with no lid on low fire for about 15 minutes, in the mean time bake some minced meat brown and ready, then add the mushrooms to the tomato mix and bring to taste with the salt, pepper, red pepper, bay leafs, optional worcester sauce and the chopped basil (I forgot the last one and added in the end).
7. Add the minced meat and let it cook on low fire for as long as you like to let the flavors come together and make the sauce thicker. Mine was a bit too watery, but it was lovely still!!!

To make it creamy like I did, add just a bit of cream or yoghurt to the mix! Great with cooked pasta or even sweet potato :) Enjoy! And you can add any herbs you like, just experiment a little and be amazed!

ღ,
Nadja