Ingredients:
10 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled
1/4 cup red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
parmesan cheese to serve on top
Directions:
1) Peel and seed tomatoes, while this is a messy process, its actually quite easy. I wash them, and use a knife to cut s superficial X at the bottom, just through the skin, and core each one. Then boil them in batches of 2-3 for about 45-60 seconds, until the skin begins to peel, then remove them with a slotted spoon and place them in an ice water bath for a few minutes, until cool. At this point, the skin should peel right off. I then just squeeze the tomato, with the core hole pointing down and the seeds fall right out! I did roughly chop all of the tomatoes to be sure there weren't any huge pieces.
2) Heat olive oil over medium heat in Dutch oven. Add diced green pepper and onion, cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3) Add basil, salt and garlic. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent. I typically don't cook garlic for this long, to avoid burning it, but there are so many ingredients cooking in the pot that it came out perfectly.
4) Add red wine, scraping brown bits off bottom of pot.
5) Add tomatoes and carrots, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, covered. By adding the carrots, it takes care of acidity, without having to add sugar to the sauce.
6) Add tomato paste, and simmer uncovered for 1 additional hour. I actually used a frozen cube of tomato paste...I rarely use a whole can when I open one, so I measure out tablespoon increments, place them in ice cube trays and then I always have premeasured tomato paste on hand.
7) Enjoy!!! We served the sauce over bow tie pasta noodles and my Homemade Turkey Meatballs, with some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top.
