Homemade Pasta Sauce

My husband and I have a celebrity crush in common - Fabio! Images of long flowing blonde hair is probably now in your thoughts - however that is not the Fabio I am referring to. I am talking about Fabio Viviani, the Italian chef from Top Chef.  We do not love him for his  Italian good looks (although watching him cook is not an unpleasant experience); we love him for his talented cooking abilities. Watching his cooking show Chow Ciao! on Yahoo is one of our favorite pastimes together. This recipe for homemade pasta sauce actually comes from his show. It is incredibly easy and quick to make. I typically whip it up while I am cooking the pasta. If you usually just heat up a jar of sauce while your pasta is cooking why not try a homemade version instead that contains no added sugars.

Start by crushing 5-6 cloves of garlic. You want to crush the garlic by putting it under the flat side of a large knife and pushing down on the top flat side of the knife. This doesn't usually take much strength as the garlic is pretty easy to smash.  

 Heat 2-3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil in a large skillet, then add the smashed garlic to it. Sauté the garlic for about 2-3 minutes or until it is a beautiful toasty brown color.



Add in a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes and let them simmer for about 5 minutes. I have made the recipe by adding nothing else to the tomatoes and the sauce turns out delicious. If you want to bring out the tomatoes natural sweetness you can add a pinch of salt. I also sometimes add in a little bit of pepper, oregano, basil, or dried onions. Other times I add in all of the above. It's up to you as to how you want to adjust the flavor.

 Once the tomatoes have simmered it's time to smash them up. This can be done with a wooden spoon. I, however, like to use a potato masher because I think it's easier. Remember though tomatoes are full of juice, which is now hot from simmering, so smash them gently because they will squirt you if you smash them too hard. 




Once the tomatoes have been smashed you can get let the sauce simmer for a couple more minutes, or until the pasta is done cooking if you made them at the same time. At this time I usually remove the big pieces of garlic but they can also be left in if you really love garlic.

Toss the sauce with some whole wheat pasta and there you have it - a delicious and healthy homemade meal! 

Cost Break Down!!

A Tablespoon of olive oil cost me $0.08, so 3 Tablespoons costs $0.24. An entire head of garlic is $0.25, so 5 cloves costs about $0.05. A can of whole tomatoes cost me $1.00 and a box of whole wheat penne also cost me $1.00. I did add a little salt, pepper, oregano, and basil to the sauce this time which probably averages out to about $0.30 for all of them. 

All together a homemade lunch for my entire family took about 15 minutes and cost $2.59 And that is awesome!