Chunky Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I received a ton of tomatoes from a co-op deal that I did a few weeks ago and I had no idea what to do with all of them. I literally got a produce box full of romas and another one full of hothouse. I decided to prep and freeze some of these tomatoes to save for making spaghetti sauce, (which I've never done in my life!). You can find the directions for prepping fresh tomatoes here Basically you just blanch the tomatoes, peel off the skins, cut in half, squeeze, and freeze. Or you can just use canned whole tomatoes. Drained, cut in half, and squeezed.

Either way you want to add your squeezed drained tomatoes to a food processor or blender. If you're using canned, probably around 2 big cans depending on how much sauce you need, or 10 to 20 fresh. Set aside about a cup or so of the tomatoes and then puree the rest of those babies up til they look like this...

Ok, set aside for now and add a thinly sliced vidalia onion, a jar of mushrooms (always optional), about a tbsp of garlic, and 1 each green and yellow bell peppers to a large pan heated with olive oil.
NOTE: Did you know that bell peppers can also be frozen for later use? Just seed, slice into rings or dice and pop in a freezer bag. So nice to have on hand.
Saute around 2-3 minutes until veggies start to soften.

Then you add a pound of ground pork and a pound of ground chicken. You can add half of each if you want to make less sauce. You can also use ground beef, ground veal, basically any ground meat but I suggest doing half and half of any two that you choose. Cook on medium until meat has browned.

Drain well and add to a large pot. Add the tomatoes you set aside earlier (diced), fresh chopped basil, about a half a small can of tomato paste, a big can of tomato sauce, (I cheated and used a jar of Ragu because I didn't have the sauce on hand lol), a few splashes of soy sauce (trust me), a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and maybe a tbsp Italian seasoning. Mix together and add two bay leaves on top. Cover and simmer on low for as long as you want. As long as you get it to a simmering boil, that is the key.

Remove bay leaves and serve over noodles for a thick and chunky homemade sauce to die for! As you can see, we serve our spaghetti over bite sized pieces of green leaf or romaine lettuce, mint leaves, and peeled cut cucumbers. It sounds strange but is a refreshing delicious twist on spaghetti. Try it, you'll be surprised!