Paolo's Awesome Tomato Sauce

Total Time: 2 hrs 40 mins Preparation Time: 40 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 lbs extra ripe roma tomatoes or 2 (28 ounce) cans tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 15 fresh basil leaves

Recipe

• 1 clean, deseed, and chop tomatoes and set aside.
• 2 peel, crush and finely chop garlic.
• 3 chop the fresh basil.
• 4 in a large pan, over medium heat add the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes.
• 5 saute the mixture until the garlic and pepper flakes have softened.
• 6 do not overcook this mixture or it will make the remaining ingredients too bitter.
• 7 add the tomatoes and salt to the pan and let the tomatoes break down to create "juice".
• 8 at this time, lower the temperature to medium-low, simmering uncovered for 30 minutes.
• 9 remove from heat and stir in the freshly chopped basil.
• 10 remove sauce mixture from pan and run through a food processor until smooth.
• 11 options:
• 12 for gnocchi, add 1/4 cup of heavy cream to sauce and heat gently to desired serving temperature.
• 13 for pizza sauce, place sauce from food processor into 13 x 9 cake pan and bake for 2 hours in a 300 degree oven.
• 14 this will remove the excess moisture from the sauce and thicken it to pizza sauce consistency.