Spaghetti With Sauce

Netgirl's Healthy Cookbook's Note:

This is the best tasting spaghetti sauce I've come across so far. I adapted it from the Discovery Health network's show "Healthy Decadence". The host is Devin Alexander and this is her grandmother's recipe, although I did not like the ground cloves in it. I also wasn't willing to use 2 bunches of fresh parsley, so I use half fresh and half dried. Serve over whole grain pasta (I recommend brown rice pasta, especially for those not accustomed to whole grain pastas) and with a salad. I usually cook quartered crimini mushrooms in 1 cup of sauce for every 2 people or every other week, add baked chicken or turkey meatballs or Hain's spicy chicken sausage (it's lower in sodium than most and can be found at Whole Foods Market). I also usually have a couple of people over for dinner and freeze the leftover sauce in 1 cup containers, which yields dinner for 4 plus 5 servings for future weeks. It's necessary to serve cooked tomatoes to men at least once per week since the lycopene reduces their chances of getting prostate cancer. According to You: The Owner's Manual, "To absorb the optimum amount [of lycopene] (that is, 400 milligrams per week), you'd have to eat 164 raw tomatoes or 16 cooked ones—but you need only 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week."

• Total Time: 3 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 16-18

Yield: 8.0 cups

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sweet onion , finely chopped to make 2 cups
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic cloves (4-5 large cloves)
• 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (no-salt-added)
• 1 (6 ounce) can no-added-salt tomato paste
• 1 cup water (purified)
• 1 bunch fresh Italian parsley (finely chopped to make 1 cup)
• ½ cup dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar (or more if the canned tomatoes are bitter)
• 1 teaspoon salt (Real Salt)
• ¼ cup dried sweet basil leaves
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 ounces spaghetti (or more, whole grain, cooked separately)

Directions:

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add the oil, onions, and garlic.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally until tender, but not browned (about 10 minutes).
4. Reduce heat to low.
5. Add the tomatoes, paste, and water, stirring until smooth.
6. Add the parsley, sugar, salt, basil, and bay leaf.
7. Cover and cook at the lowest heat setting for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
8. Allow time near the end to cook the pasta according to package directions or to your liking.
9. Store leftover sauce in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 1 month.