I remember my mom always keeping our kitchen pantry well-stocked with tons of staples and goodies (ramen noodles, ramen noodles, ramen noodles – boy, did I love ramen noodles) during my childhood.  When stocking up on said staples, we would always load up our cart full of jars of the Classico brand of pasta sauce whenever it went on sale, filling it with all different types and flavors.  Those jars would then wait at the ready for emergencies, whims, and recipes.

When I left home at 18 and on my own for the first time, I was also filling my own kitchen pantry for the first time.  Of the many things I picked up from my mum, I made it a point to keep Classico sauce regularly stocked in my own pantry.  I had kept up with that same routine until recently, when I stopped buying tomato sauce from the store in general (in an effort to force myself to make it myself).  Last April I set myself on a mission to lessen my intake of highly-processed and pre-made foods (or basically I just decided to start cooking most of what I eat from fresh, raw ingredients).  My plan has been to eliminate one thing at a time.  My first objective was to start making my own stock and my second, has been to make my own tomato sauce (tomato paste, I fear, will be the most difficult to part with but I think I may wait for that as my final mission).

My transition to giving up tomato sauce began (in a sense) last Fall (semi by accident) because around that same time tomatoes were slowly drifting out of season.  Since most of my meals throughout the week are supplied by my weekly box of veggies from Johnson’s Backyard Garden, as the tomatoes stopped coming I became distracted.  I cheated probably four times through the winter – mostly for eggplant parmesan (because boy, do I love eggplant parmesan) but around February or March of this year, I realized I hadn’t had much else that required tomato since the last of my JBG ones from the Fall (I am also slowly training myself to eat seasonally, although I am unsure if I could ever stop eating eggplant).  There were only a few other times when I came close to giving in, and that was when I had cravings for cauliflower crust pizza.  The first (and second) time I got the craving(s), I used pesto instead (funny enough, also “out of season” but easier to put together than making a from-scratch pizza sauce) and so I made a “white pizza” and patted myself on the back for a good evasive action. But the third time, the third time I knew it couldn’t be avoided.

The third time I wanted cauliflower crust pizza, the lazy part of me wanted to just give in and go get the sauce just like I had for the eggplant parmesan.  In my head it was just this once and then I would proceed on my path as if nothing had happened.  But then I thought of how long I had survived without it (on the whole) and knew it was time to fully commit.  And then I thought about all of the sugar and sodium and who knows what lurking inside that glass jar.  And even then about the disposable | “recyclable” glass jar that I would then leave behind after use if I didn’t reuse it.  So much. All that for a pizza.

But pizza is delicious and I knew if there was a will, there was a way and no obstacle could keep me from my pizza.  If anything, there would also be my backup plan, pesto to rely on.  Cooking big batches of tomato sauce is not something I am sure to always have time for, so I knew I needed an alternative option that was quick and easy if I was going to also eat pizza in the future.  And then I thought of it.  And it literally takes 5 minutes to prepare – raw tomato sauce.   I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before.

Thankfully, I have learned a thing or two about canning from Kate Payne of Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking, so this summer is going to be a tomato canning adventure with actual cooked tomato sauce, but this quick and easy recipe will easily suffice in the meantime.

[raw] sundried tomato sauce

Tagged as: corn-free, dairy-free, easy, gluten-free, grain-free, kid-friendly, nut-free, paleo, peanut-free, soy-free, sugar-free, vegan, vegetarian

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