Homemade Pasta Sauce

It's fall and it's chilly

Sometime around this time of year I start craving "comfort" foods

Lasagna and the like are one of those foods for me

I come from an Italian family and I grew up eating ONLY homemade pasta sauce

I mean... I couldn't even think of eating anything that came out of a jar

When I first met my husband, I made him lasagna from scratch... even shredding the mozzarella by hand

Then.... I had babies...lots of them.... and there was no more homemade for a while

My wonderful mom made me sauce and froze it so I could always have it on hand.....

But eventually I had to break down and but a jar here or there

Then I got used to it.... sort of

BUT.... my youngest child is now 2... so I have a lot more free time then I've had in years

I decided to make my own sauce again

OH MY! 

I had forgotten what I was missing!

I don't know that I will ever buy a jarred sauce again.

Seriously!

See for yourself:

Ingredients:

- 15 cloves of garlic, diced
- 3 Tbs butter
- 1 (29 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 3 (29oz) cans tomato sauce
- 2 (4oz) cans mushrooms (drained)
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/2 C red wine
- 1/4 C white wine or sweet vermouth

Directions:

In a large pot melt 2 Tbs of butter add diced garlic and sautee for a few minutes (don't let it brown)

Turn heat to low and add crushed tomato and tomato sauces. 
Add your Italian seasoning and basil (and any other spices you might like in your sauce)

In a seperate fry pan, melt the leftover 1Tbs of butter.
Add cans of mushrooms and sautee
Once mushrooms are getting a little brown, add the white wine (or vermouth)

Let the liquid cook down then add the mushrooms to the sauce pot
In the same pan, fry the sausage (if you are using ground sausage)
Drain and add the sausage to the sauce pot
*If you are using sausage in the casings (tubes) you can add it to the sauce whole and uncooked if you like.  As long as you cook it for a few hours it will be fine.
Add the 1/2 C red wine...mix well
Cook on simmer/low for at least 3 hours
Stir every once in a while to make sure there is no sticking on the bottom
I cook it much longer than that (6 hrs) because I happend to be home all day.
That's it. 
Now it's ready to be used in any dish you like or once it cools you can freeze it for when you are ready for it.

Review:
This sauce was so good.  I was taking tastes of it all day.... so were the kids.  Everyone loved it. The kids ate many many servings of the sauce over noodles... it was a huge hit!  They even ate the mushrooms because they thought they were sausage...lol

Tips:
Do not cook this with a lid on the pan... it will make it watery.
Make sure to cook it on a low setting.. you don't want any boiling or burning on the bottom.
If you are not a wine drinker then you can buy these little mini bottles of wine (in a 4 pack similar to this) instead of buying a large bottle and letting the rest go to waste
Or you might have a neighbor/taste tester that loves red wine and you can borrow some from her :)
If you do use sausage in the casing, make sure to take it out at the end of cooking time and cut it up to put back in the sauce...and to make sure it's cooked through.
You can make this without the sausage... though my mom would have a heart attack and say you are losing a lot of flavor.
It can be made with ground beef or turkey or even no meat at all.
This can be used as a base... you can add any seasonings you want to make it your own. 
If you don't have the wines or vermouth you can still make this... they just add a little more to the flavor
Freezing:  When the sauce cools, you can place it in individual servings in a freezer bag to use for another time. 
It might seem like a lot of work... but it's work once for a lot of dishes later!
Let me know if you try this and what you think.
Do you have a sauce recipe that's different or an ingredient that you think makes your sauce great?  Share!