Spicy Tomato Sauce

Makes about 3 quarts
Recipe from William Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking

Use this sauce in the Spinach & Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna recipe (on this blog.) Save yourself time later and make a double batch of this sauce, and then freeze. Lost River Market & Deli carries all of the ingredients for this yummy sauce.
The book also suggests using this with meat loaf, on pasta and over polenta.

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ cups finely chopped yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (28 oz.) whole plum/Roma tomatoes with juice
1 can (28 oz.) chopped tomatoes with juice
2 cups tomato sauce

In a small bowl, stir together the pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Set aside.
In a large pot over medium high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and sauté until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and cook the onion until it releases its juices, about 5 minutes. Stir in the minced garlic.
Add the plum tomatoes and their juice. Using a wooden spoon, break up the tomatoes into small chunks. Add the chopped tomatoes and their juice and the tomato sauce and then stir in the spice mixture. Raise the heat to medium high and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered until the sauce has the thickened a bit about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and use immediately or let cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 2 months.

*Variation: Add 2 orange zest strips along with the tomatoes.