Tomato Pasta Sauce

One of the trickiest parts of cooking is cooking for a crowd – how do you please everyone? Enter this sauce! I recently had a whole hodge-podge of people over and wanted to easily please everyone without making multiple dishes. This tomato sauce is easy to make and a cheap recipe to make in bulk for a crowd. Vegetarian friendly and perfectly pairs with grilled chicken for the meat lovers in your life. Even if you’re not cooking for a crowd, you can make this sauce in bulk and it freezes beautifully. So cook up and enjoy!

Ingredients (makes 8 very large servings):

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 15 oz. tomato sauce
• 56 oz. petite cut diced tomatoes
• 12 oz. tomato paste
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp oregano
• Salt and black pepper to taste if needed

Recipe:

• Dice onion and mince garlic. Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat and add onion and garlic. Cook and stir until onions are translucent.

• Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato sauce. Stir thoroughly. Add, basil, Italian seasoning, and oregano. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil.
• Cover and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes. Flavors will steep together and sauce should thicken. Add salt to taste throughout.

• Serve with your favorite pasta (I love this with rotini or rigatoni!). These flavors go perfectly with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. And as mentioned earlier – if you’re looking to add some meat, mix in some grilled chicken.