Mama’s Mama’s Basil Tomato Sauce

This recipe is inspired by the nights that my mom made spaghetti. I don’t have a clue of what she really put in it was, except that 1 small can of tomato paste was added for every 3 cans of tomato sauce. My dad used to say that The ony purpose of the spaghetti sauce was to hold the meat together. While I am confident that he really didn’t mean that, I can’t help but think that this stabbed my mom a little in the heart every time she heard it. Especially since the meat we used back that was hamburger. After reflecting on this, I figured part of his reasoning was formed from eating spaghetti on Guam while in the navy during WWII.
I will use this sauce for spaghetti and pizzas and pretty much any dish that I need a good tomato sauce in it.
For a full flavored Spaghetti sauce, you can add 2 or 3 Tbs of Oregeno and/or Marjoram. Pine nuts are another option. Be creative, and experiment.
This recipe makes a lot of sauce! I scoop it out 1 cup at a time and put them each in a quart sized freezer baggie and lay them flat and freeze them. This lets me have a ready to eat dinner for two with each bag.

Ingredients

4 28oz cans Centos Crushed Tomatos w/o salt
1 small can Tomato Paste
1-2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Olive Oil
5 oz Fresh Basil Leaves chopped
1 bulb Garlic finely chopped
2 tsp Shrimp paste or 2 anchovies from a can, chopped
1 Tbs Fennel
5 Leaves Bay Leaves
1 Tbs Dry powdered mustard, see note below


You may say Anchovies?!?!! Shrimp Paste?!?!! Yuk! But they are important. In the amounts given, you will not taste them but they will help bring out the other flavors.
The purpose of the mustard is to help blend the oil into the sauce so the oil does not float to the top and make the sauce look greasy.
To achieve the slow cooking that this recipe is written for requires a very low heat. My crock pot has a Keep Warm setting that set the temperature to about 165 F . This temperature is low enough to survive a full night of cooking without making the pot a giant petri dish.

Steps