Simple Tomato Sauce

This is my favorite plain jane, simple tomato sauce! The flavor is so pure and clean...I love it! it is also the base for so many tasty sauces (and even a soup). It freezes beautifully too...Enjoy!

Simple Tomato Sauce

2 lbs ripe Roma tomatoes or 2 cups good quality canned whole Roma tomatoes*
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup celery, minced
1/3 cup carrots, chopped
salt

If using fresh tomatoes, blanch in boiling water 30 seconds or so. Remove tomatoes with a slotted spoon and peel skins.

In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions until pale golden brown. Add celery and carrots. Saute vegetables another 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and their juices to pot. Break up tomatoes with back of wooden spoon. Add a generous pinch of salt and stir. Simmer sauce for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove sauce from heat and add additional salt to taste.
Your sauce is ready to serve at this point, but I prefer to puree the sauce with my immersion blender (food processor works great too).

Now comes the fun part...add a few tbsp of pesto (see recipe below)...add a 1/2 cup cream or half & half, some fresh Parmesan and some fresh basil...now you have delish tomato basil soup. Add some garlic, red wine and fresh oregano, thyme and rosemary for a bold red sauce (simmer a additional 30 minutes). Add some pesto, stir and ladle over homemade meatballs and spaghetti...yumm-o!

Below is my friend Dawn's pesto recipe...it is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!
For the sauce I served earlier tonight, I added 1 1/2 frozen cubes of Dawn's pesto and stirred until cubes melted.

Dawn's Pesto

Process 1/4 olive oil, 2 c. loosely packed basil, 2 tbs. pine nuts, 2 cloves garlic, and 1 tsp. salt in a blender until smooth. Stir 1/2 C. freshly grated Parmesan cheese and 2 tbs. Romano. Sometimes I need to add more solids depending on the moisture in the basil. Spoon into ice cube trays and freeze 24 hours. I like to transfer 3 cubes in a ziploc snack bag, then place a few snack bags in a gallon sized bag.

**** If you use canned tomatoes (which is fine...sometimes all you can find are crappy tomatoes), make sure to buy imported Italian whole Roma or plum tomatoes.