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Our Tomato Sauce

This is a very quick and delicious sauce that we use as the base for a variety of dishes (chicken, shrimp, meat sauce, over pasta, homemade pizzas/calzones, etc). 98% of the time we have all these ingredients on hand in our pantry so it’s a great weeknight go-to. Without further ado…

The JLH Tomato Sauce

1 28-ounce can of whole San Marzano tomatoes, with sauce
1/2 onion, diced (red or white, whatever you have on hand; even a few shallots would suffice)
4-6 garlic cloves, diced
2 large carrots, shredded and then chopped (this is Jason’s method for getting the carrots to almost melt into the sauce)
Zest from 1 lemon
Red pepper chili flakes to taste, about 2 tsps for extra spicy
Olive oil, to coat bottom of pan
Salt and pepper

Warm olive oil in a dutch oven or a deep pot over medium heat. Add in chopped onions, salt, and saute until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes to soften and infuse the olive oil. Be careful not to burn the garlic! There’s no going back after garlic burns, the entire dish has to be started over.

Add the carrots and then salt all the veggies again to help everything sweat. Add the entire can of tomatoes with sauce. Then use a potato masher to crush the tomatoes. You can skip this step though if you don’t mind waiting for the tomatoes to soften on their own.

Let the sauce simmer, partially covered, anywhere from 10-40 minutes to the consistency you prefer. Add the lemon zest at the end and then salt and pepper to taste.

**Notes**
(1) If you have fresh basil, cut some over the dish before you serve. Heavenly.
(2) If you need it a bit sweeter you can add granulated sugar a tsp at a time but the carrots should really be the only sweetener needed.
(3) If you want it thicker, add tomato paste a tablespoon at a time.
(4) If you want it smoother, use a stick blender.
(5) If you want it thinner, add some water.

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