Ah, tomatoes.
I hope you are enjoying tomato season, as much as I am. It’s quickly coming to an end, here. so I’ve been busying myself putting up some sauce and freezing roasted tomatoes to enjoy, over winter.
And, homemade tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes is so good.
But, it’s so hard, right?
Blanching and peeling and seeding and juicing the tomatoes. Only to have to chop and dice and everything, too. The reward is great, but OMG! The work.
So, I came up with this super easy tomato sauce shortcut. This is so easy. I mean this is working mom, full time student easy. Can’t cook, no time easy.
The easiest.
And, believe me when I tell you, it is so outrageously delicious. Its my family’s favorite. This takes about 45 minutes, from start to finish. And you end up with enough delicious sauce, for at least 3 pounds of pasta.
Try my method and let me know, what you think.
Stupid Easy, Crazy Delicious, Heirloom Tomato Sauce
5 pounds of heirloom tomatoes ( I use a mix from my garden some Italian Heirlooms and Brandywine)
2 medium onions
5 cloves of garlic smashed
2 TBSPN olive oil
1/4 cup of fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Sugar (optional)
Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Coarsely chop onions, smash the garlic. Cook onions and garlic for around 10 minutes or until they take on some color. Season now. Add the pepper, thyme and the sugar, if you’re using, now. Also, take special care not to burn the garlic.
While the onions cook, wash and quarter the tomatoes. I don’t peel or seed or even juice, them. That’s the beauty of this recipe. Just toss them in with the onions.
I let the tomatoes cook for about 10 minutes. They’ll break down a little. Then I mash them with a good old tomato potato masher. Until all that juice comes out. The sauce will be kind of watery.
That’s ok.
While its simmering, I use my trusty ladle to spoon out the juice, into a separate jar. I reserve it for thinning out sauce or a good Bloody Mary, whatever. You should end up with about 32 ounces of fresh tomato juice. I usually separate it into 2 pint jars and freeze one.
Removing the juice thickens up the sauce. At this point it should look more like tomato sauce you’re used to seeing. I cook mine for about 30 minutes or so, at a good simmer. I add the salt at the end. I like things super salty, so I might dump 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt into the pot.
Once it’s done cooking and seasoned I remove, it from the heat, allow it to cool and process it in the food processor. An emersion blender, if you have one, would work great,for this step. This will smooth out the chunks and make it look more like sauce. Taste it, its perfect now.
If you’ve gotten this far, you should end up with about 64 ounces of delicious finished product. I usually separate it into thirds and freeze it in ziplock bags.
And that’s it. You’re done. Serve on top of spaghetti, with some torn basil and freshly shaved parmesan.
This is my kids favorite thing to eat. I instantly become, the best mom, ever. And having the reserve in the freezer has saved my ass on many a hectic weeknight.
Happy eating!
