Overflow Tomato Pasta Sauce

Ok, this pasta sauce is meant to be a base sauce to freeze, when you thaw a portion out, you add the finishing touches. This recipe is perfect at the end of the summer when you realize you've got a million tomatoes and they are getting soft faster than you can eat them. What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes, so the prep time is pretty quick. The down side to this is that you will need to be able to cook them down all day long so they loose their bitterness. I'm talking a minimum of 6 hours here. If you've got a food processer use it to dice the onion and carrot to save time. I've adapted this recipe from my mother-in-law's basic pasta sauce, which she adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.

* 1 medium onion, diced (I like vidalia or a sweet onion myself.)
* 1 carrot, diced
* 1 clove garlic, chopped (add another if you are a garlic freak)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if you've got fresh oregano, omit the dried and use the fresh at the end of the cooking process)
* Tomatoes, roughly chopped, as many as you can fit in the pot (use up the ones that are bruised and overripe)
* olive oil
* salt & pepper
* red wine vinegar

Coat the bottom of a large enamel pot with olive oil, just enough to where it can swish around a little. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano, then sautee over medium heat till onions are transparent. While this is happening, I usually start chopping up my tomatoes.

Add the hacked up tomatoes to the pot, stirring as you add to coat in oil. I mean it when I say add as many as your enamel pot can hold. Add the juices from the cutting board, seeds, and all. Cut, add, and stir, till your pot is full.
Reduce heat to a tiny little simmer. Now we wait. Continue to cook at lowest heat all day long while tomatoes break down. Stir occasionally.
After 6-7 hours, add salt, pepper, (and fresh oregano if you are using it instead of dried) and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
Now get out that immersion blender and puree the sauce, leaving a few chunks if you like. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one. They are only $14.99 at Target. If you refuse, do it the hard way and transfer your sauce to the food processor or normal blender in batches, pureeing as you go.

Cool the sauce completely, and freeze in whatever portions make sense to you. Keeps in the freezer hapily for 6 months. Remember this is a BASE SAUCE only. When you thaw it out you will add fresh basil, cheese, meat, or whatever the heck you like to put in your pasta sauce. It will be a bit thin when you thaw it, so plan on re-heating it for at least 15 minutes to cook down a bit.

Note:
I like to add 2 carrots instead. I don't know why, but it makes it very yummy and interesting. Try it both ways and see what you think.

Using canned tomatoes: This recipe works great in the winter when all you can get is canned tomatoes. Use 2 large cans (I think they are 24 ounce) per every 1/2 onion and 1 carrot. You will only need to cook down for 1 hour, so you can use it right away. Still freezes well!

My additions: I always add a handfull of fresh basil and some shaved parmesan cheese before serving.