Go Back

Tomato Sauce

using your summer garden's tomatoes you have frozen for later, this recipe makes a great tomato sauce for pasta.
Print Recipe
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

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

Equipment

  • 2 large stock pots or sauce pots
  • 1 colander
  • 1 large bowl to fit colander
  • immersion blender optional

Method
 

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. After about an hour or so, add herbs and salt and pepper to the sauce. Stir the sauce and allow to simmer longer.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

Notes

Way more details and  "but why" answered in the full blog post at www.johnsonhomenc.com, search for "tomato sauce".