Spaghetti Sauce

[tani]

So, I dislike tomatoes. However, I still eat ketchup and I'm fine with sauce as long as it doesn't contain chunks of tomatoes. Unfortunately, I've been having a hard time finding any sauces that don't have those huge chunks. Too much picking at my food tends to make me lose my appetite.

Earlier today, my boyfriend suggested that there might be a way to make my own sauce so that it won't be chunky. I know that making sauce from fresh tomatoes is a bit of a process, and I'm not really that interested in a lot of hassle. But is there some way to take things like tomato paste or tomato puree or something that is similar in consistency and make it into a credible sauce? I tried googling some recipes, but everything I saw wanted me to put crushed tomatoes in, and that's really not what I want at all.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. :)

Comments

[tameiki]

Here's a sauce that doesn't have any chunks of tomato in it. There's tomato puree and tomato paste but no chunks :)

It sounds rather yummy. I may have to give it a whirl myself. Was going to suggest how I make spaghetti sauce... until I realized that I have no idea how much of all the spices I use in it. No measuring is done in my kitchen. Sorry! XD

If you wanted to try some of the recipes you found with the crushed tomatoes in it, why not substitute puree instead? Or you could start out with the crushed tomatoes and then throw them into either a blender or food processor... Just a thought. Good luck!

[tani]

That recipe looks good. I will have to try it sometime. :)

I never even thought of just blending the icky tomatoes away. Thanks so much for the help!

[eviltammy]

Just use tomato sauce and tomato paste - and choose the sauce w/o tomato pieces. I use sauce w/tomatoes for chili, but not for spaghetti sauce. Mine is a meat-based sauce, but I'd think it would work without, just thin: ground beef, 2 small cans of sauce, 2 small cans of paste, onions, garlic salt, pepper, oregano, water. Or putting the crushed tomatoes into a food processor.

[tani]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I will have to try them out. :)

[sid]

I think we must be tomato twins! I feel the same way, and pick out the chunks that come in most jarred sauces. I'll never make a sauce from scratch, because I can't take the smell of tomatoes, either.

So, not a recipe, but my go-to jarred sauce is Traditional Prego, which has a number of chunks that I can live with and smells good when I open it. I would think you could run it (or your choice of sauce) through a blender or food processor?

[tani]

Oh, yeah. I always hated when my parents were making tomato sauce because the whole house would just reek of tomatoes. Ew.

I will have to check out the Prego. I've been poking at random sauces, trying to find one that doesn't have the chunks, but I buy it so infrequently that I can never remember which ones I've tried and which ones I haven't. I think I'll be able to remember this one, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

[azurelunatic]

The bulk of the hassle is generally in the long cooking time. Happily, this is what crock pots are for!

[tani]

I didn't even think of that. Thanks for the suggestion!

[vass]

You can add tomato paste to a bit of olive oil and garlic and oregano and salt, and stir it all around on the stove, then add the pasta. I do that not because I don't like chunks, but because it has a more intense flavour and takes less time and effort and is cheap.

[metawidget]

This is basically what I do, too. If bits of other veggies are fine by you, pre-frying chopped/diced onions, mushrooms, carrots and/or celery in butter or olive oil before you add the paste and spices makes for a nice variation.

[tani]

Mm, that sounds good. I will have to experiment with adding different things. Thanks!

[tani]

I will have to try that. Thanks for the suggestion!

[pajaroenvuelo]

You could just make the sauce and then blend it with an immersion blender, I think. You would be able to use the crushed tomatoes and then blend out all the chunks so it would be smooth and chunkless just like you like.

[tani]

I never thought of that. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

[rydra_wong]

Are you specifically looking for a tomato sauce, or would you also be interested in suggestions for tomato-free pasta sauces?

[carrie_ironhorse]

I would be interested if you have some good ones!

[rydra_wong]

Pesto! You can buy good-quality pesto in jars, which works well if you don't fancy making your own or your cooking actually does stop at the "boiling water" stage.

(I don't have a recipe for it that I'm happy with yet, but there are lots if you Google.)

I can't eat tomatoes, so I invented a tomato-free "bolognaise": saute onions and garlic in olive oil, add some (tomato-free) harissa paste, maybe add some chopped aubergine (eggplant) if I fancy it, then (when the aubergine's cooked) add beef or venison mince and stir until it's cooked through.

[carrie_ironhorse]

I do like pesto... my mom grows basil and it's very productive, so maybe I'll make my own. Or maybe not. Depends on how lazy I get. :) Thanks for the suggestions!

[tani]

I've never tried pesto before, but it sounds like I will have to give it a shot.

Your bolognaise also sounds really good. I will have to try that as well. Thanks!

[rydra_wong]

Pesto is wonderful -- basil, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil, basically (there are variations). If you like those things, you should like it. *g*

A good quality pesto in a jar is a very useful thing to have on hand; it's great on pasta, but you can also smear a bit on chicken or fish before grilling it, which is very nice.

[ar]

I really love Budget Bytes for cooking in general, and luckily, she's got two different homemade marinara sauces! Homemade marinara and crockpot marinara. I've only tried the former, and it's very good. To make them chunk-free, do as eviltammy says and replace crushed tomatoes with smooth tomato sauce.

If you have any kind of a blender, you can always get rid of the chunks that way, too. :D My stick blender (or, as I call it, the zhoozh (like the sound it makes!)) has proved extremely useful in this regard, because I don't like chunky sauce, either. You can zhoozh the sauce up right in the jar if you're using storebought, or you can do so in the saucepan while it's cooking.

[tani]

Ooh, that whole website looks really good. I will have to peruse it when I'm feeling ambitious. ;)

I will definitely have to see about blending the sauce. I can't believe I never thought of doing so before.

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

[matgb]

I use tins of choppsed tomatoes to make sauces, and then a blender to get rid of all the lumps-miss_s_b complains because she likes the damned lumps, but she also really likes my pizza so doesn't complain too much.

If you can't get tins of ready chopped, I'll be surprised as they fill half an aisle in our stores, but you can easily use a puree instead, and a tomato sauce is fairly easy to make across the board.

[tani]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm definitely going to feel much better about making food with sauce in the future. :)

[carrie_ironhorse]

We are clearly tomato twins. Thanks for posting, I'm going to peruse all of these excellent suggestions!

[tani]

No problem! I'm glad my question was of use to someone other than myself! :)