Dehydrator Tomato Meat Sauce

(Dried tomato and tomato powder version) This sauce combines dried tomato slices (crushed) and dried tomato powder (rehydrated to paste) for a great tomato taste. Remember that dried tomato slices are much easier to crush if they are frozen or at least chilled for 15-30 minutes. Break them up with your hands or put them in a blender. When broken into small pieces, the tomatoes rehydrate faster and the skins blend much better into the sauce. Double or triple this sauce to feed a crowd. The sauce also freezes very well. Adapted from the "Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook". Prep time does NOT include dehydrator drying time, which is 8 to 10 hours.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1  cup  dried tomatoes, slices (about 20)
• 2  tablespoons  dried bell peppers
• 2  tablespoons  dried onion
• 2  tablespoons  dried mushroom pieces
• 1  tablespoon  dried celery powder
• 1  teaspoon  chopped garlic
• 1  teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3 1⁄2 cups water, divided
• 1  lb lean ground beef
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried fennel
• 1⁄2 cup  dried  tomato powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 1⁄4 cup  chopped green olives

Directions

1. With your hands, crush the cold dried tomato slices. In a bowl, combine the crushed tomatoes with the next 6 ingredients. Pour in 3 cups of the water and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes to rehydrate.
2. In a skillet, brown the beef and drain off any excess fat. Add the salt, basil, oregano, and the fennel, and stir in the rehydrated tomato mixture, including the liquid. Simmer the sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least 30 minutes, adding more water, if necessary, if the sauce becomes too thick.
3. When the sauce has just about finished cooking, combine the tomato powder in the remaining 1/2 cup water, add the sugar and pepper and stir to combine. Let sit for 10 minutes.
4. Add the rehydrated tomato powder to the meat sauce and simmer the sauce slowly for at least 10 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the olives. Serve over hot pasta, with grated Parmesan cheese.