When checking in with friends, I was struck by how many of our first culinary memories involved making spaghetti sauce. A hot spatter of sauce or boiling water scalded in our memory. Or how when looking at the glob of red in the center of that pasta, knowing I helped make it taste good! A lot of people who do not necessarily like to cook are spending time in the kitchen right now. Economic times have forced some of those “always-out-to-eat people” to create something practical, economical, reheatable, and hopefully tasty and good for you.

Here is my offering to those burdened in the kitchen – a healthy pasta sauce that just may get you to like saving money enough to keep cooking. The magic ingredient – tomatoes! Americans eat about 18 pounds of tomatoes a year. Behind potatoes, onions and lettuce, tomatoes are the fourth most popular vegetable. Tomatoes are also the most popular vegetable to be grown in a private garden.

Tomatoes are good for healthy teeth, bones, skin and hair – so what queen wouldn’t like ’em? They can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce cardiovascular disease and some cancers, including prostate cancer. Tomatoes contain vitamins C, A, K, potassium, fiber, and lycopene – a photochemical that gives the tomato its red color.

So here is the deal, my faithful readers: If you normally take a jar of spaghetti sauce, brown a little ground beef in with it and add a pinch of seasoning, then it is time to step it up a notch. That jarred sauce has a ton of sugar and the wrong kind of salt. You can make a big batch and save it in the freezer until you are ready to use it. If you are going to cook at home, make it healthy and worth your time. Now get in the kitchen!

Spaghetti, sprouted, whole grain or brown rice, cooked al dente

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot (and whatever other veggies you may be adding), and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds one week in the refrigerator or up to six months in the freezer.

When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate amount of sauce. Garnish with basil leaves and cheese, if using.

For more protein, serve with free-range chicken sausage of your flavor choice. We love the sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic and sweet Italian types.

Important Note:

1) Always buy organic produce if availability and your budget allow

2) You are doing yourself a huge favor by buying organic, salt-free canned tomatoes. There is a lot of the wrong kind of salt in the other types. Even if sea salt is used, it’s generally refined. You are better off adding your own quality, unrefined sea salt. Tomatoes are one of the produce items most likely to retain pesticide residue, and since organic canned tomatoes are now widely available in most markets, just do it.

3) Experiment with unrefined pastas. There are so many pastas out there that aren’t refined white starches that will wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels, so why not try one? Brown rice pasta, whole spelt pasta and even Ezekiel sprouted grain pasta are healthy alternatives.