More Nomato Sauce! Now with fresh herbs!

Folks, it's the last variation on a theme, I promise.

I changed my nomato sauce recipe to accommodate the lovely fresh herbs I have growing on my deck right now. I received some baby plants and a huge planter for my birthday at the end of May, and despite my east-facing deck and the constant rain we've been having all Spring, my plants are growing like, well, weeds.

The 2011 Garden of Doom has multiple varieties of parsley, basil, summer and winter savory, dill, red-veined sorel, thyme, oregano, and cilantro. It smells so! freaking! good! It took a couple of hours to plant everything and I water most of them every evening before bed, and fertilize once every two weeks. If you have a small patch of earth or even a planter on a deck, I recommend giving it a try.

Nomato Sauce Redux

Basic Sauce

6 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 beet, peeled and chopped

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 celery stick, sliced

1 bay leaf, whole

1 1/2 cups of water

Flavour ingredients

 

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, fine dice

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup winter and/or summer savory, chopped (this really makes the sauce - don't skip it!)

1 tsp dried oregano (or 1/8 cup fresh... you get the idea)

2 tsp. olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup red wine (optional)

salt to taste

 

Directions

 

Place all ingredients of the basic sauce in a pot and boil, covered for 30 minutes, then puree with an immersion blender. Add water, if needed, until mixture has a tomato sauce texture.

Saute garlic and onion over low heat in olive oil with a little salt until soft, about10 minutes, then add herbs and saute for 5 minutes more.

Add basic sauce and bring to a boil, then add wine and lemon juice, if using. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy over pasta, pizza, or anything else you would make with tomato sauce.