Rafael Pasta Sauce

A vegan sauce with artichokes and tomatoes and a lot of basil.

Happy Thanksgiving week! I volunteered to make vegetarian lasagna for the women’s shelter Thanksgiving dinner this year. So, I got creative and used this sauce for 2 layers of the lasagna, and the tomato mushroom sauce for the other 2 layers. It will be a unique, delicious and meatless dish. Try it this way for a change or stick with the traditional by serving it with another type of pasta noodle.

This sauce is so good, your non-vegetarian friends won’t realize it’s vegan (that is as long as they like artichokes)! It’s what we call an “easy pantry meal.” You just need to have the cans of ingredients in your pantry. Note that you won’t use a whole can of crushed tomatoes for the sauce, but you can freeze what you don’t use for some other recipe. Crushed tomatoes freeze really well.

Rafael Pasta Sauce

A vegan tomato and artichoke sauce for pasta.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Entrees and Favorite Rice Combinations

Cuisine Italian American

Servings 4 to 6 servings

Equipment

• 1 large pot
• knife and cutting board

Ingredients

  

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup heaping, chopped onion (one small onion)
• 3 to 4 TBLS olive oil
• 2 TBLS dried basil
• 2 teas. dried oregano
• 1 teas. black pepper
• 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 2 14 oz. cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained.
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Instructions

 

• Sauté the onion and garlic on medium in 3 to 4 TLBS of olive oil with the basil, oregano and black pepper for about 5 minutes. Do not brown.
• When the onion is transparent, add the diced tomatoes, the crushed tomatoes and the drained artichokes.

  Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

  Add the fresh parsley, and serve over pasta.

Notes

This sauce freezes well.

Keyword artichokes, basil, tomato sauce