PASTA SAUCE

6 carrots chopped

2 large onions, one minced, one coarse chopped (this gives you a lot of taste without too many onion pieces in the sauce)

8 stalks celery chopped

2 full heads of garlic…. hey it is a BIG pot of sauce

3 hot peppers

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

3 tablespoons ground black pepper

2 tablespoons each of oregano, basil, thyme, fennel seeds

olive oil to sautéing the vegetables

rinds from parmesan cheese

Run garlic and hot peppers through a food processor and add with rest of vegetables to a pan with enough olive oil to saute and sweat down.

Add in herbs, spices, salt, black pepper and sugar. You do need the sugar to balance out the acid in the tomatoes. Cook down a little longer until vegetables are tender and then add in the chopped, drained tomatoes and the cheese rinds.

Simmer in an open pot for a minimum of 4 hours to cook off the excess liquid and concentrate flavours. Stir occasionally. Remove chunks of parmesan before packing up or serving.

I packed mine into plastic vacuum bags and they are all sealed up in my freezer to pull out on a cold fall or winters day to spoon over some of my OMG Meatballs. Click here for the link to that recipe.