Super Easy Tomato Sauce

The other night I was super rushed for time. I worked late and it seemed that supper time snuck up on me. We had activities to rush to after supper (#momlife, right?), so as soon as I got the kids from school it was time to start supper. If you work and do ANYTHING ELSE in life, you’ve had these nights too. We had a speaker come talk to our school council meeting and she said, ‘You’re busy. I’m busy. We are all too busy all of the time so there is no need to talk about that anymore. We make time for what we want to make time for.’  (I’m paraphrasing, of course. Wish I’d written it down as she said it).

What is my go-to meal when I am feeling rushed? Pasta with tomato sauce! I put on two pots of water- one for their regular pasta and one for my gluten-free pasta- and reached for a can of tomato sauce…which I didn’t have. No big deal! Garden tomatoes to the rescue.

This tomato sauce is stupid easy. It was a hit with everyone and my son asked me to record what I did so that we can have it again.

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  1. First step is to fry some bacon!!

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2. While the bacon is frying, cut up some tomatoes. It depends how many people you’re feeding, but for my family of 4 I cut up 6 full-size garden tomatoes.  Roughly dice them up and set them aside until the bacon is done.

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3. Remove the bacon and chop it up. My family likes big pieces so I cut them up into approximately 1 inch pieces. But whatever suits your fancy! Then you add your spices. I kept it simple and used two!

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Mrs. Dash you can find anywhere and I used the Southwest Chipotle mix because it blended well with the saltiness of the bacon. I used garlic powder from our favourite Calgary spice market, “The Silk Road Spice Merchant”, but you can use whatever garlic powder you have on hand and love.

Let all of the ingredients simmer and ‘Voila!’ tomato sauce. I served mine on fusilli with a side salad. Yum!

Want the actual recipe already?? Not rocket science but sometimes I have trouble choosing spices and think that doing sauce from scratch is too hard (it’s really not), so I hope this helps if you are feeling stuck or indecisive. Cheers!

 

Stupidly Easy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:20161021_171436

6  fresh tomatoes

4 slices of bacon

1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle spice mix

1 Tbsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Method:

  1. In a large saucepan on medium heat, start cooking the bacon. Lay in single strips on the bottom of the pan, draining the extra grease as it pools in the bottom. Flip every minute or two.
  2. While the bacon is cooking, dice 6 medium-to-large fresh tomatoes. Set aside.
  3. Once the bacon is as crisp as you like it, remove the bacon and drain any excess grease, then add the tomatoes to the hot pan. Turn heat to medium-low and allow the tomatoes to cook.
  4. Cut the bacon into pieces. I prefer 1 inch slices but cut them to a size that you are happy with.
  5. Add the bacon to the tomatoes. Stir and allow to simmer for 1-2 minutes.
  6. Add 1 tbsp of Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle spice and 1 tbsp of garlic powder to the pan and stir it in. Taste after one minute and add more spices as needed. If you prefer more heat, add more Mrs. Dash.
  7. Add salt and pepper, to taste. I didn’t add salt since the bacon added as much salty flavour as we needed. I added 1 tsp of pepper to the mix and stirred it in.
  8. Let simmer for 10-20 mins until the tomatoes are broken down. Stir occasionally.
  9. When the sauce is the consistency you like, remove from heat, and serve on top of your favourite pasta!
  10. Enjoy!

*(I am not affiliated with, or profiting from, Mrs. Dash or The Silk Road Spice Merchant. I just really like using their spices. All comments are my own and not sponsored at all.) *

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