Fresh Tomato Sauce
A friend brought us four pounds of surplus tomatoes, and I had my first experience making tomato sauce from scratch. Sauce is an excellent way to quickly use lots of fresh tomatoes, and I was surprised it was as easy to make as it was. Even if you don’t have enough tomatoes to make all the sauce, you can use those overripe or ugly specimens to add texture to a canned sauce. Just seed, chop, and throw them in the pot.
Fresh Tomato Sauce
I cut an “X” into the bottom of the tomatoes, and quickly blanched them for easy peeling. I brought a pot of water to a brisk boil, put the tomatoes in for 20-40 seconds, and then quickly transferred them to a bowl of ice water. The tomatoes simply slipped from their skins.
The tomatoes, blanched and peeled, were a lovely bright pink color.
In a colander over a bowl, I removed the seeds and juice. The tomato juice was reserved in the bowl to thin the sauce later. The tomato meat I chopped coarsely.
I minced an onion, three cloves of garlic, and half a stalk of celery, and sautéed them in 1/4 cup of heated olive oil, until they began to brown. I added the tomatoes, and brought all to a brisk simmer. I seasoned the sauce with one tablespoon dried oregano, one teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon unrefined sea salt, and some chopped fresh basil.
I kept the sauce at a brisk simmer for 45 minutes, mashing (and stirring) it frequently with a potato masher, and occasionally thinning the sauce with the reserved tomato juice.
The result was a thick sauce with delicious caramelized flavor.
We made short work of the sauce. Spaghetti and tomato sauce is a favorite meal in our household.
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NEXT SISTER said...
This was delicious! I was afraid that it would taste too tomatoey or be watery and gooey or something, but it was great. Yum. yum, yum! The best I’ve had (and that’s saying a lot)...
PS: It didn’t stink, either. :-)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 01:20 PM
HANDMAIDEN said...
Papa really had you all worried, didn’t he?
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 01:29 PM
Tuesday, May 22, 2012