Marinara Sauce

This marinara sauce tastes delish on top of pizzas, with pasta or as a dipping sauce with breadsticks. I normally use jarred pasta/pizza sauce and season it myself. Other times, I make the sauce using canned tomatoes. This sauce requires fresh tomatoes, and you can totally tell the difference. It tasted just as good as the jarred sauce, without the preservatives. It's definitely the healthier way to go.

4 tomatoes, diced
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp sweet basil, chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in pot. Add the onion and sautee until soft. Add the garlic and sautee for about 30 seconds.
2. Add the tomatoes next along with the spices (salt, black pepper, cumin powder, red chili powder and italian seasoning). Also add the paste and about 1/2 cup water. (Add more depending on preferred consistency.)
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and close lid. Cook sauce for about 30-45 minutes.
4. Close to the end of the cooking process, add the sweet basil and mix well.

You can certainly cook this sauce in about 20 minutes. I had time to kill so the sauce cooked longer, which is definitely a good thing. The longer the tomatoes cook, the better the taste. We used this sauce on our pizzas and leftovers were used in our Stuffed Zucchini Casserole.