Mandy's Pasta Sauce

By Jayne
Three of my four children are vegans.  This is Mandy's pasta sauce that is now my favorite.  You make it in a pressure cooker.  Now this is not our grandmother's pressure cooker--the one we all lived in fear of because it might explode.  This is made in the ultra-modern electric Cuisinart pressure cooker.  Once you try cooking in a pressure cooker, you will use it on a weekly or daily basis.  So here is the recipe:

1 big can of diced tomatoes

1 big can of tomato sauce

big yellow onion

big yellow or red pepper

carton of portobello mushrooms

garlic to taste

tablespoon of dried fennel

Brown the onions and garlic in the pressure cooker.
You can use olive oil or water.

Pour in tomatoes and add the rest of the veggies and fennel.
I sometimes also add chunks of eggplant or zucchini squash.

I also add a little sweetness--maple syrup or honey. 

Put lid on pressure cooker and cook for 20 minutes on high.  Once the pressure releases, I throw in fresh basil and oregano chopped up--or dried--to taste with some salt and pepper.

I continue to simmer it until it is thick enough for pasta.  If it is too runny,  I will add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste.

This sauce only gets better with time.   Put it over pasta or over zucchini cut in a spiralizer like pasta.