Okay, here’s the thing about these fresh summer garden tomatoes for your tomato sauce… they are actually ones you froze over the summer when it was too hot to be sweating over a stovetop cooking down pasta sauce to pressure can or, if you’re a rebel canner, water bath can for winter eating. If you took me up on my easiest way to preserve tomatoes back in the summer using this method, this quick and easy recipe for tomato sauce will be a good one for you. But don’t fear, you can still use this recipe on FRESH garden tomatoes too!
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The Tomato Sauce Recipe from Frozen Tomatoes
If you’re like me and you search Pinterest for a recipe, you need it quick and don’t have time to dilly dally reading all the commentary on the blog, then I’m here to help you today.
Here’s the recipe you want so quickly, and you’re welcome:
- 1 gallon bag of frozen summer garden tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes)
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, diced
- 2 TBSP oil like avocado or olive oil
- 10 fresh basil leaves, diced or whole, or 2 tbsp dried basil
- 5 sprigs, use leaves only, fresh oregano or 1 tbsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp sugar or local raw honey (READ ON FOR WHY)
- 1 can of tomato paste (optional, reason why below)
How to make tomato sauce
You will need two large sauce pots. One will be for the sauce itself, the other for the tomatoes, frozen or fresh.
CAVEAT for winter weather:
I need to go ahead and commercial break here to explain and warn that this process is just that– a process. One you may not want to or have time to do. But here’s the thing: you didn’t do this process in the summer when it was too blazing hot so now we are doing it when the air has turned crisp and you’ve not turned on the heat yet because Lord Jesus knows you don’t need your electricity bill any higher yet. So you’ll enjoy the heat from your kitchen with this recipe.
Back to the recipe…
Fill one pot 3/4 with water and boil. While not watching that pot to boil, dice your onion and garlic. Add oil to the other sauce pot and then add the onion and garlic. Allow them to sauté until soft on low heat.
Once pot is steaming (does not need to be a hard boil), slowly add in 3-4 frozen tomatoes at a time. Be watching to remove each tomato with a slotted spoon once the skin breaks. I like to add these tomatoes to a colander inside of a large bowl to catch the water. Tomatoes shouldn’t be too hot to handle so go ahead and peel off the skins. SAVE THEM FOR THIS! Add each tomato to your sauce pot with the onion and garlic.
You can core the tomatoes of the black stem piece. Because the tomato is frozen, you will end up just cutting off the black part only. Feed it to your chickens, pigs, or your pup. Let nothing be wasted on a tomato!
Again, all this can be done the same on a fresh tomato. Your boil time will be shorter to break the tomato skin.
Simmer, Simmer, Simmertime
While on low, allow your peeled, mostly cored tomatoes to simmer for an hour or more with the onion and garlic on low with a lid.
After about an hour or so, add herbs and salt and pepper to the sauce. Stir the sauce and allow to simmer longer.
A note about the herbs:
I like for my tomato sauce to be packed full of flavor so I’m a little heavy on the herbs. You make the call on what you think is too much. I do not chop my fresh herbs but add them whole. If I use dried herbs from my garden, since I store them whole, I will crush them between my palms before adding to the pot.
The sauce’s finishing touches:
Add a can of tomato paste into the sauce pot and stir well. Tomato paste is thicker and thus, adds a thickness to the sauce that is preferred over a watery sauce. Tomatoes are full of water so cooking them down to allow water to evaporate will take hours of constant stirring.
Now add in the sugar. Why sugar? Okay, fine. Use honey. Whatever sweetener you prefer. I do this because the sweetness cuts the acidity of the tomatoes a little. This allows for enjoyment of the tomato flavor without the tomatoes being so overpoweringly tomato.
Feel free to use an immersion blender at this point to smooth out your sauce. It will have whole leaves of fresh herbs, tomato seeds, perhaps very few skins if you had small tomatoes or stubborn end pieces. If you want those smoothed out, use the blender. If it matters not to you, this would be the time to brown your ground beef and make your pasta noodles.
Serve tomato sauce over pasta noodles of choice with some fresh parmesan cheese for a *chef’s kiss* delicious and nutritious family dinner.
If it suits your fancy, dash on a little red pepper flakes too. There’s good reason why those two are usually always offered on the table at any good Italian restaurant worth its salt.
The long and the short of it
This tomato sauce recipe may not be the very best. In fact, you may find it to be too thin for your liking. This is why tomato paste is optional.
To me, tomato paste adds a more acidic flavor to the sauce. Perhaps because I am using a store bought paste versus a homemade kind. I’m not sure. If I do use paste, I will actually add a little more sweetener to my sauce to help mellow the sauce out. Taste test and add to as needed.
This recipe may take a little longer in the preparation stage but the long simmer has bonuses:
- added heat in the house when it’s cold
- added fragrance everyone gets to enjoy
- a nice, rich in flavor tomato sauce for dinner
More TOMATO IDEAS for you
If you enjoyed this tomato themed post, you may like these too:
Dehydrating Tomato Skins for soup flavor
How to keep tomatoes on the vine past the first frost HACK
3 Ways to preserve your summer tomato harvest
Take a moment…
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Tomato Sauce
Equipment
- 2 large stock pots or sauce pots
- 1 colander
- 1 large bowl to fit colander
- immersion blender optional
Ingredients
- 1 gallon bag of frozen summer garden tomatoes
- 1 onion diced
- 3 garlic cloves diced
- 2 TBSP oil like avocado or olive oil
- 10 fresh basil leaves diced or whole, or 2 tbsp dried basil
- 5 sprigs use leaves only, fresh oregano or 1 tbsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp sugar or raw local honey
- 1 can of tomato paste
Instructions
- Fill one pot 3/4 with water and boil. While not watching that pot to boil, dice your onion and garlic. Add oil to the other sauce pot and then add the onion and garlic. Allow them to sauté until soft on low heat.
- Once pot is steaming (does not need to be a hard boil), slowly add in 3-4 frozen tomatoes at a time. Be watching to remove each tomato with a slotted spoon once the skin breaks. I like to add these tomatoes to a colander inside of a large bowl to catch the water. Tomatoes shouldn't be too hot to handle so go ahead and peel off the skins. Add each tomato to your sauce pot with the onion and garlic.
- You can core the tomatoes of the black stem piece. Because the tomato is frozen, you will end up just cutting off the black part only.
- While on low, allow your peeled, mostly cored tomatoes to simmer for an hour or more with the onion and garlic on low with a lid.
- After about an hour or so, add herbs and salt and pepper to the sauce. Stir the sauce and allow to simmer longer.
- Add in a can of tomato paste to the pot and stir well. If you like a thin sauce, use the immersion blender to blend up tomatoes and herbs finer. If you like a chunky sauce, you do not need to blend.
- Next, add in sugar/honey and stir well then allow sauce to simmer with lid on for about 30 more minutes or you can serve immediately over ground meat and/or pasta like spaghetti.
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