Fresh Pasta Sauce

The Great Tomato Caper of 2013 started modestly with 6 heirloom tomato plants being planted in 3 straw bales. Expecting a season similar to 2012, Chuck built cages out of bamboo. And after a month or so, the tomato plants broke out of their cages and proceeded to produce pound after pound of tomatoes. We're guessing about 300 pounds of tomatoes...but that is a total shot in the dark as far as estimates go.

Right before the first freeze we picked well over 100 pounds of green tomatoes. We fried some up and also made some green tomato pickles. Neither of these impressed me much - but it could be due to the inexperience of the chef. (a.k.a. Me). Here we are in the second week of December, and I was looking around the house at a significant number of red tomatoes - the ones we picked green but decided wanted to ripen. I had to do something, so I looked up into about making tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes...and this is what I morphed those ideas into...

I started by slicing two medium onions thinly. My dad has taught me that it is best to slice them longitudinally...so I did.

 

Then I tossed them into my enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a healthy drizzle of olive oil to sweat over low heat while I started to work on my tomatoes.

 

Here are my beauties, rinsed and ready for peeling

 

Peeling is a snap! You heat a pot of water to boiling then drop in your tomatoes in small batches so you don't stop the boil. Once they are in, start your timer - 1 minute. 

 

Use tongs to pull them out and drop them into an ice water bath. I used a pitcher because it was easy to handle and took up less counter space than my bowl. Leave them in there long enough to cool off for handling.

 

Sorry for the blurriness here. I used a sharp knife to cut an X into the bottom of the skin.

 

Then I peeled the skin back. OK, they don't always peel this nicely, but you didn't expect me to share a picture of one of my hack-jobs, did you?

 

Next step - slice the tomatoes fairly thinly. This makes it easy to get rid of blemishes as well as to get those pesky seeds and tomato jelly out. Some of my slices turned out more like chunks, but since I wasn't striving for perfectly sliced tomatoes, I didn't let it bother me.

All of the tomatoes have been peeled, sliced, and seeded...although I wasn't overly picky about the seeds. Several of the recipes I looked at would have me break out the blender at this point. However, I like a chunky sauce. Plus (let's be honest here) I really didn't want to clean the blender. So...

I decided to just get one-on-one with my tomatoes and hand-crush them.

 

As you can see, I wasn't super-picky about the size of the tomatoes as I knew they would cook down. I was ready to toss them into the pot, but I looked at my pot of onions and realized I'd forgotten something...garlic! 

The recipe says 6 cloves, but one was a bit small, so I added another. Messing with garlic is another area where my laziness kicks in. So rather than peeling and slicing or crushing, I broke out my heavy-duty metal mallet.

 

After giving each a good whack, I was able to get the peels off. Then I used the mallet to squish the dickens out of them. 

 

They got tossed in with the onions and cooked for just over a minute while I got my herbs and spices together.

 

Everything is in the pot and ready to be covered. It will simmer at least 2 hours. I stirred a few times just to be sure there were no sticking issues.

So, there was the matter of what to do with the peels, seeds, etc.

 

Knowing how bad our soil is here, I wasn't about to just toss this stuff! Besides, my worms like a little variety. So, I combined them with what we were storing in our new compost pail...

 

Isn't it cool!?! We got it at Cost Plus World Market while we were in Tucson. It has a charcoal filter in the top so it doesn't stink up the kitchen.

Now...back to the sauce!

 

Yes, I know I am supposed to have it artfully displayed in a beautiful bowl. However, this is for tomorrow night, and I really don't want to wash an extra bowl. So, here is my first go at pasta sauce made from fresh tomatoes, and it is pretty darned good!

 

Fresh Pasta Sauce

2 onions, sliced thinly

Olive Oil - enough to drizzle over bottom of pot

13 small – medium tomatoes

6 cloves garlic, sliced

2teaspoons dried basil

½ tsp dried thyme leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

½ tsp red pepper flakes

½ tsp sea salt

Heat oil in heavy pot and add onions, cooking over low heat while you prep the tomatoes.

Peel and crush garlic. Reserve until you are ready to add tomatoes.

Rinse and peel the tomatoes (detailed directions on this above). Slice tomatoes about 1/4". remove blemishes and seeds. Add herbs and spices to tomatoes.

Stir garlic into pot, increasing heat to medium. Stir garlic and onions for a minute or two. Add tomato mixture and stir to mix all ingredients together. Cover and reduce the heat so you have a low simmer. 

Simmer at least 2 hours, stirring about every 45 minutes. 

Sauce should be thick, but if it is a bit watery, remove lid to reduce liquid.

Serve over favorite pasta.

Enjoy!