My mother-in-law and father-in-law brought me a box of tomatoes from down on the river over a week ago. The box has been setting on my kitchen table the entire week. I felt guilty every time I looked at it, knowing that the tomatoes were going to get so ripe if I didn’t do something with them that they would wind up being nothing but food for the chickens.

It felt wasteful. That made me feel even more guilty so finally I dug around in my supplies and pulled out my canning items, and I happened across two packets of Mrs. Wage’s Pasta Sauce mix.

I still procrastinated a couple of more days and didn’t make anything. Finally I knew that if I didn’t get this stuff done, I should just take the box out and throw it to the chickens because it was going to draw those little fruit flies into my kitchen so I got off my hind end and got busy.

After reading the back of the packet, I realized I could can the tomato sauce or I could freeze it. Freezing it seemed a lot easier to be honest so that’s what I chose. Then I realized I was still procrastinating because I absolutely despise blanching and peeling tomatoes! I texted a friend who is a master canner, and she said if I blended the tomatoes thoroughly when making pasta sauce, there was no need to peel them.

I procrastinated a little more. The more I thought about it the more I knew I did not want to stand over top of a hot pot of pasta sauce and have it splattering all over the stovetop throughout the day. I decided that I would try it in the crockpot, and folks, I have found the cheater’s method for making pasta sauce! I will never make it any other way again! LOL

Here’s what you do:

1. Wash your tomatoes and cut out the cores.

2. Run them through the Ninja until pureed.

3. Pour into the crockpot, add the packet of Mrs. Wage’s and 1/4 cup of sugar, and stir well.

4. Set the crockpot on high, and let it boil away for about three hours. Stir it when you remember.

5. Set the lid a little askew, and let it cook down to the consistency you want. This took mine about 12 hours total, start to finish.

6. Ladle into sterilized jars, leaving an inch of headspace, and set on a towel in the fridge to cool overnight.

7. Label and stick in your freezer!

This is seriously the easiest of anything I have ever put by. It’s really tasty sauce too! I made a pot of spaghetti today for Jake and his friend, and we had some sauce straight from the crock pot on it because I was making a second batch at the time; it was fantastic!

There you have it: the cheater’s method of making spaghetti sauce! I think this would also be perfect if you had a small garden and so you were only getting a small enough amount of totatoes (@ 18 small to medium ones) to make one batch of pasta sauce at a time. I also like that this did not tie me to the kitchen all day long.

I am curious to see how this tastes after being frozen for six months. I will check back in and let you know in February!