Easy Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce

You can prepare and finish this tomato basil pasta sauce in less time than it takes to make the gourmet pasta.

Tomato sauce that comes in a jar or can may be simple, but it oftentimes just does not taste as good as freshly-made pasta sauce. Sauce does not need to take too much time, as there are various easy dinner recipes that can help you out. This tomato basil pasta sauce is a quick dinner fix that goes great with healthy pasta.

This sauce recipe specifically allows you to change up the recipe based on the ingredients that you have at hand, or the type of ingredients that you prefer to purchase at the market. For instance, if you shop at a local farmers’ market you may prefer to use fresh basil for the recipe. And if you do not go shopping often, you may prefer to buy frozen basil, which can be kept in your freezer for much longer than fresh herbs.

Also, this sauce can be easily altered in order to accommodate for vegans or vegetarians. Because the sausage is optional and is added last (and is thus more of an addition than a crucial aspect of the dish), simply leaving out the sausage altogether does not significantly alter quality of the sauce. However, if you do eat meat, the chicken apple sausage does add a nice taste and texture to the dish.

Ingredients for the Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce (Plus Healthy Pasta):

4 large, fresh tomatoes (or 2 cans chopped tomatoes)
1 fresh bunch (or 4 frozen cubes) basil
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. (or 2 frozen cubes) garlic
2 links chicken apple sausage, cut up (if desired)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 pkg. whole wheat, organic pasta

How to Prepare and Cook the Sauce and Gourmet Pasta (Serves 2-4):

1. Fill up a pasta pot halfway with water. Heat on high. Add a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil (if desired), and cover.
2. While the water is heating up, prepare the ingredients. Chop up the tomatoes, basil, garlic, and sausage. If you want the sauce to be smoother, you can smash the tomatoes in a tomato press instead of chopping them.
3. Using a saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix the ingredients using a spatula or wooden spoon. If the garlic starts to burn, remove the pot from the stove, reduce the heat to “low,” and return the pot back to the stove.
4. At this point, the water for the pasta should probably be boiling. Add whatever pasta you have at hand to the pasta pot, whether it be regular, whole wheat, or organic pasta, and stir every couple of minutes. Cook for the amount of time indicated on the package instructions. For al dente pasta, choose the lower end of the cook-time range.
5. Add the tomatoes. Turn the heat up so it is almost up to “high” and cover the pot. The increased heat will allow the water to evaporate faster; the cover will reduce the amount of sauce that splashes out. If you would prefer to let the water cook out slowly, you can keep the temperature at medium.
6. When the excess water is almost all gone from the cooking sauce, add the chopped sausage and stir. Since the meat is pre-cooked, it only needs to be heated up.
7. Drain the pasta over a colander, making sure that practically all water is gone. Watery pasta will dilute the sauce and thus dilute the quality of the dish.
8. If you drain the pasta but there is still some water left, you can add the pasta to the cooking sauce (if possible). This will allow some of the water to evaporate.
9. Remove the gourmet sauce from the heat when the meat is warm and the sauce is no longer watery.
10. To serve, put a few spoonfuls of pasta in a bowl, add Parmesan or Provolone cheese on top of the pasta, and pour some of the sauce on top.
11. Enjoy!