"Instant" Spaghetti Sauce

A couple of years ago, Sharon posted about the importance of planning and organizing in order to eat from food you grow yourself.

...growing your own food requires considerable planning - a pizza I want to eat in the fall requires I start thinking about wheat last fall, tomatoes this winter and basil in may. Planning and organizing can make a huge difference in your consumption. Buying in bulk, and keeping quantities of your staples around, learning to eat seasonally and recording what works and what doesn’t, consolidating your cooking so that you do all the baking in one shot for a few days, and can keep the oven off…this is planning.

Even if you're eating food you did not grow yourself, her recommendations can help you eat well while saving time and money. Because I have a pantry stocked with diverse foods and I have preserved food at other times of the year from my CSA share and wild-harvesting, I can throw together a wide variety of delicious and healthy meals fairly easily.

I needed lunch in a hurry today and didn't have any leftovers in the fridge. I glanced at the shelves in the kitchen and saw a small package of whole-grain angel hair pasta. That seemed like a good start but I wanted some sauce with it. Despite my commitment to eat the food I have on hand - which often means cooking from scratch - I really didn't feel like doing a lot of chopping and cooking for a late lunch.

No worries; I was able to throw together a really good spaghetti sauce in less time than it took for the pasta water to come to a boil. I was only able to do this because I had done the work earlier to prepare and preserve these foods. Here are the ingredients I combined for the sauce:

• Frozen cubes of roasted tomato puree - from a flat of extra tomatoes I bought from my CSA farmer a couple of months ago.


• Frozen cubes of basil & roasted tomato puree - I don't remember how long ago (months) lots of basil came in the CSA share. Since I don't cook with oil and I'm allergic to tree nuts, I made "pesto" by pureeing the basil with roasted tomatoes. It freezes really well in ice cube trays and is great in soup as well as pasta sauce.


• Pickled onions - I love this simple recipe for preserving a glut of onions. They keep in the fridge for ages.


• Capers - just a spoonful out of a jar someone gave me a few months ago.


• Olives - my own home-cured olives from two winters ago.


• Italian seasoning - I buy this in bulk and just keep refilling the spice jar.


• Dried mushrooms - much cheaper than fresh. I've looked into growing our own mushrooms but the price per pound (from the mail-order kits) seems to come out about the same as just buying them fresh.


• Pomegranate red wine - sounded interesting at the store, but we weren't crazy about it for drinking. Great for cooking, though. (I'm trying to turn some of it into vinegar for salads, too.)

By the time the pasta was cooked, the flavors had melded into a wonderful sauce. Unfortunately, I'm now out of frozen tomatoes. Next year, hopefully we'll get a bunch out of our own garden and I can stock up better.