Pritikin's Basic All-Purpose Tomato Sauce

No fat! No salt! No sugar! Plenty of fiber! And delicious.

I (Dan) have gotten a lot of mileage from this excellent recipe. Good on pasta, toast, and everything else.

This comes from a Pritikin cookbook I've been using since the late 1970s. It's by their Alumni Chef of the Month, Lila Tomlinson. Do you suppose she is still alive? Probably! Pritikin people live long and healthy.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs onions, chopped fine
  • 3 lbs carrots, grated
  • 2 large green peppers, seeded and chopped fine
  • 4 large stalks celery, chopped fine
  • The above vegetables can be minced fine in a food processor (steel blade).
  • 1/2 cup defatted chicken stock
  • 5 28 fl. oz. cans Italian plum tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 13 fl. oz. cans tomato paste
  • 6 large or 8 medium cloves of garlic, crushed. Keep count so you can remove them later.
  • 2 heaping tablespoons each: dried sweet basil leaves, dried oregano leaves
  • 1 heaping tablespoon dried marjoram leaves
  • 2 heaping teaspoons each: dried thyme, dried savory
  • 1 heaping teaspoon dried red chili peppercorns
  • Substitute fresh herbs when possible. Triple the quantities.
  • 2-3 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1 cup red wine OR 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Steps

  1. In the bottom of a heavy 8-quart kettle, bring the chicken stock to a boil and add the chopped onion, carrots, green pepper and celery. Turn the heat down to very low and leave the vegetables to simmer, covered, for 2 hours or until they have tuned to mush. Stir them occasionally to keep them from sticking.

  2. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring back to a boil. Lower the heat again and simmer, covered, for 2-3 hours, again stirring occasionally to keep from sticking.

  3. Refrigerate the sauce for at least 4 hours or overnight.

  4. Bring back to a boil and simmer for a further 2 hours, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced somewhat and thickened to taste.

  5. Fish out all the garlic cloves.

  6. Freeze sauce in meal-sized containers.

  7. For meat sauce (optional) brown 3 1/2 oz. very lean ground beef for each serving to be used. Add the meat to the sauce while it is warming up.

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