Not Exactly Loretta's Spaghetti Sauce :)

Technically not a "meal" but it can be used in many meals and is much better for you than store-bought sauce which is chock full of preservatives, artificial colors, sugar and other yucky stuff.

You can make this and can it (I use a big canning pot and steam) or you can freeze it. It freezes beautifully.
This recipe will make about 6 quart jars of sauce at probably half the cost of storebought. You can size the recipe up or down to suit your needs.

You need:
Olive oil, about 3 Tbsp. Enough to cover the bottom of the pot.
Six 28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes (or if you don't have a food processor or want to skip a step, crushed tomatoes)
Four 6-ounce cans of tomato paste
Two medium onions, chopped small
Six cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Oregano, about 3 Tbsp
Basil, about 1 Tbsp
Rosemary, all the leaves off of about four two inch sprigs

*I don't MEASURE when I put the spices in mine, I just put in what I think looks and smells good and I have for years and I still have no actual idea how much goes in. So....


Heat the oil in the bottom of a very large stock pot.
Toss in the chopped onions. Cook for about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic. Cook for another 2 minutes.

While that's cooking, open up all the cans of tomatoes and run them through the food processor (or not if you got crushed). At the end of the 2 minutes, dump all the tomatoes into the pot. Stir it up good. Turn the flame WAAAY down. Set a timer for an hour.
You can't just walk away though. You need to come back and stir every so often. This stuff is going to be MOLTEN HOT LAVA. Be careful.

At the end of the hour, dump in all tomato paste, all the spices, salt and pepper as you like it. Stir it all up. Smell it or taste it, adjust spices as needed.
Set a timer for an hour. Same deal. Come back and stir the molten hot lava every 10-15 minutes or so.

And that's it!
At the end of the hour you're done.
If you're steam canning...pour into clean dry quart jars and submerge in hot water for about 45 minutes or more/less depending on your location (altitude affects canning).
If you're gonna freeze it, pour into clean dry freezer safe containers and stack up in your freezer.

Voila! You'll never eat Ragu again.