Quick Chunky Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
28 oz canned fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
15 oz canned diced tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 small to medium carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 jarred whole pimiento, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped*
1 tablespoon oregano, finely chopped*

Directions:
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onions, carrots and celery. Saute over low heat until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and pimiento. Saute until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and herbs and cook, stirring occasionally, on low until it thickens-about 10 minutes.

*I actually used these packaged frozen herbs because I didn’t want to buy a whole bunch just for this recipe and they worked very well.

My thoughts:

While it is warming up, we are still months away from fresh tomato season. I had a hankering for a classic tomato sauce but knowing I had to use canned tomatoes I added a little more vegetables to the sauce than I normally use- sort of a riff on pasta primavera-to brighten the sauce up a bit. The carrots and pimiento adds some natural sweetness that counteracts any slight bitterness you might detect in canned tomatoes.

11 Comments

  1. I’m loving your recipes, just subscribed to your site via RSS and I must say, you are prolific 🙂

    Made the chicken salad tonight and my hard to please husband thought it was a winner.

    Thanks!

  2. This sauce looks great – both colorful and hearty. Would you say that is it light? Seems so from the photo.

  3. The sauce sounds delicious, but I’m not sure where to find canned fire-roasted crushed tomatoes here in the UK.

  4. Franziska-
    I wouldn’t know where to find them either but you could order them online or just use regular crushed tomatoes.

  5. Eliana-
    I would say it is on the light side.

  6. I love chunky sauce! This looks so good!!!

  7. That is my kind of sauce!

  8. I usually add a bit of grated beetroot to these kind of sauces. It is an idea I got from Peter Gordon and gives a great colour. you could just add a few semi sundried or oven roasted tomatos to give some of the depth of flavour fire roasted would bring

    Margaret
    homeorganics.ie

  9. We forgot about pimento? We used to put it in lots of things for color and a little zippy add? Thanks good & easy idea. best, s

  10. If only it were tomato season now! This recipe makes me hungry for ripe off the vine! Thanks for getting the summer taste buds going!

  11. Stumbled upon your recipe yesterday and made it last night. SO good! Thanks for the recipe!