If you grew tomato plants in your garden this year and they were lucky enough to survive the early summer flash flooding (mid-westerners, I see you!), then you have probably been enjoying your tomato harvest! I sure hope so!
My mom makes delicious salsa with her tomatoes. I, however, over-indulged on it and cannot bring myself to make more at this time. Without further adieu, my homemade spaghetti sauce recipe:
Ingredients:
- 4 cups tomatoes, fresh, diced
- 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
- 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (include juice)
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup green bell pepper, fresh (or whatever color you have available, the closer it is to red, the sweeter the bell pepper), diced.
- 1/2 onion, medium, diced
- 1 cup mushroom, fresh, sliced
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper, black
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated;
- 1 lb. hamburger or venison, ground, cooked.
Directions:
- Place all ingredients (hold the Parmesan cheese and ground meat) in a 6 quart pot or dutch oven;
- Stir and bring to a boil;
- Turn your burner to low, cover and let simmer for 25 minutes;
- While simmering, brown your meat;
- Add 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese to mixture;
- Add browned meat to mixture (don’t drain! We need a little fat in there to get some extra flavor!).
- Mix it together and voila!
Now, this is a BIG recipe. It yields 8 cups of sauce. The reason? I like to “divy” it up into separate plastic containers and freeze them. One of the many cooking lessons I learned growing up from my mom was to “make extra and freeze it.” Gives you and yours a good meal in a pinch.
I like to place mine in different sizes of containers so I won’t have to defrost a lot at one time. Large ones are ready for when family or company come for a visit. Medium ones are ready for my family of four. And small ones are ready for when my husband is on ER call and it’s just the boys and I.
This year was our first attempt at gardening since we’ve been married. But how our garden is set up is the cool part. The produce from it is just extra. Our neighbors, the Gorby’s, live south of our pasture. It’s about 500 feet as the crow flies from our house. Long story short, we all moved into our current houses around the same time, our oldest son thinks the whole wide world of Kolby, we share guineas and cats, and our ATV’s usually meet somewhere in the middle for a bonfire or cookout. That’s also where the cattle pens are that we made into our “community garden” this summer. And let me tell you, the tomatoes, cucumbers and corn LOVE that extra nitrogen left behind by the previous occupants. Kolby even mows a strip of grass in between the houses that our son calls “the grass highway” for easier travel. I just think the whole set up is neat.
Making our way on the “grass highway”. Even Bubby got himself a tomato for the ride home! 
So here we are, with tomatoes galore! One of Lan Man’s chores is to check the garden and he takes it seriously. It is checked multiple times a day and usually with his Bubby in tow. Sometimes we see the guineas congregating in the garden. Or we may come back with a goat at our heels that just wants some company. You never know what you’ll find or see but there will always be something!
I hope you enjoy my spaghetti sauce recipe. It’s fresh and it’s and easy way to use up some of those tomatoes!
