Simple fresh tomato sauce recipe

Last night I needed to use up a bunch of fresh tomatoes we had from the garden. (This is loosely based on an Italian Cooking Encyclopedia recipe, but I couldn't find it online).

·         1 2/3 lbs tomatoes, chopped

·         1 stalk of celery, chopped

·         1 carrot, chopped. I didn’t have any celery, so I went with two carrots instead.

·         1 medium onion, chopped

·         1 clove of garlic, minced

·         5 tbsp of olive oil

·         Fresh basil (chopped), or other dried Italian seasoning

·         Salt & pepper to taste

Add all of the above to a big skillet. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Dump it in a food processor or blender & puree. Taste & add additional seasoning (salt and pepper, basil, garlic, etc) to get the flavor right. Then simmer again for 15-20 minutes.

The key with this one is after the sauce is ready & the pasta is cooked (we used penne), toss the two to coat. The noodles really absorb the sauce. I topped with grated fresh parmesan & basil. It was fabulous. You can freeze the remaining sauce. We had 3 main dish servings last night, & froze about half, so I'm guessing it make six generous main dish servings.