oh... who needs a food mill!

So, since my husband is gone so much, I've been spending a lot of time watching the food network and cookingchannel tv.  I'm always looking for another way to cook things in a new and different way.  As a result of watching so many cooking shows, I've become a fan of Anne Burrell in Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  She makes a simple marinara sauce from scratch that sounded pretty good so I wanted to try to make it, or something like it. 
I used 3 large cans (28 oz) of whole tomatoes.  I opened them and poured the juice and tomatoes into a large strainer over a large bowl.  I then coated the bottom of my le creuset dutch oven with olive oil which I heated over medium heat.  I thought... how hard can it be?
Ha Ha.

I used a wooden spoon and began to press the tomatoes into the strainer, scraped the bottom of the strainer to get all the good tomato into the bowl, leaving the skin, the seeds and the thick core behind.

You can see how long this might have taken by the thickness of the tomato on the bottom of the strainer!

Now this is supposed to be an easy process, however, without a food mill to do the work for me, this entire process of pressing 3 cans of tomatoes through the strainer took me almost 2 hours!  I ended up taking the pan off the heat so that I could finish and started the cooking after I had strained all my tomatoes. 

(Guess who ordered a food mill!) 

After straining all the tomatoes, I turned the heat back on and after the pan was hot I added 2 pieces of thick sliced bacon which I cut into lardons.   I cooked the bacon for a few minutes over medium heat in my dutch oven, rendering the fat and turning the lardons a glossy golden color.  After rendering the fat from the bacon, I added 2 whole diced sweet onions.  I added salt to the onions and stirring occasionally, cooked them a few minutes until they were translucent.  I then added 6 cloves of diced garlic and cooked the mixture for another 2-3 minutes, or until you begin to smell the garlic cooking. 

I then added the pureed tomatoes to the pot and added a can of water to the mixture, salting liberally.  Continuing over medium heat, cook the mixture for 2-3 hours, stirring frequently and tasting for the proper amount of salt. 

I have to say that this is one of the best red sauces I've ever made.  It was simple in it's complexity, and yet tasted full and rich with flavor.  I immediately made lasagna with it and then used it a few days later in my meat loaf.  Now I made a great meat loaf, but this time, Dad took one bite and said "this is really good meatloaf... it is very flavorful" 

I could have fallen off my chair.

Bon pain de viande!