Tomato Sauce for Southern Italian Lasagna

Yesterday for Christmas dinner we had Neapolitan Lasagna because that is what Dan wanted for dinner. He loves it when I make anything Italian. I have been working on the vegan ricotta cheese substitute for some time now. This last batch of ricotta was the best yet. Dan has already asked me to make more lasagna this weekend for him to take in his lunch this week. Here is the tomato sauce I made to use with the lasagna.

Tomato Sauce for Southern Italian Lasagna
Makes 8 ½ cups – nutrition is per 1 cup

Ingredients:

1 red onion, peeled and finely minced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
½ cup water
1 carrot, grated
30 ounces tomato sauce
28 ounces diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon thyme, dried
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
½ pound seitan crumbles

Directions:

Water sauté the onions and garlic until soft. Add the remaining ingredients bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced (about 60 minutes). Cook, stirring occasionally until the sauce is the texture you like. I prefer mine to be nice and thick as pictured above.

Nutritional Information (per one cup):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 96.01
Calories From Fat (7%) - 7.03

Total Fat - 0.81g
Saturated Fat - 0.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 629.5mg
Potassium - 597.25mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.72g
Fiber - 3.55g
Sugar - 7.15g
Protein - 9.56g

Comments:

This sauce is flavorful, slightly sweet from the carrot and spicy from the red pepper flakes. It has a meaty chew from the seitan crumbles. This sauce would also be excellent with spaghetti.

Each cup of this sauce contains approximately 1,200IU of vitamin A, 50mg of calcium, 30mcg of folate and 6mcg of selenium.

Unrelated note:

I will try to get the lasagna recipe posted tonight before dinner but I need to get into the kitchen soon and get to work on dinner. I should be able to get the lasagna recipe written while dinner cooks on its own.