Fresh Mixed Tomato Sauce
Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy15
minutes1
hourAt the end of every summer, some better than others, I have more tomatoes than I can eat or serve so I like to make sauces/purees to use throughout the winter when you can’t buy the flavor of a beautifully, ripe, summer tomato. I use everything I freeze throughout the winter in soups, stews, pastas, and more. The flavor from a summer tomato is one of my favorites. This is a great way to make a sauce using all the varieties from your garden. We always grow a wide variety of tomatoes from cherry tomatoes to Roma to San Marzano’s. I also grow a wide variety of herbs so I think they all complement each other and make my sauce all the better.I have 3 recipes that I merged into one over the years. It’s up to you and your personal taste if you put the sauce through a food mill. I do tend to like a chunky sauce so that will not go through a food mill but for a truly remarkable tomato puree with lots of flavor, I do use my food mill. It produces a light, velvety sauce with wonderful flavors of summer. Happy Tomato Season! I will say I doubled this and I still did not end up with a lot of sauce.
Ingredients
2 Tablespoon olive oil
3-6 garlic cloves, minced
6 lbs tomatoes, big and small, quartered
1/8-1/4 tea spoon sugar
4 sprigs basil
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs oregano
Salt and Fresh ground pepper
Directions
- In a large dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook about 30 seconds just till fragrant. Add the tomatoes, sugar, herb sprigs and salt. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to med low, stirring often until it becomes thick. This should take anywhere between 30-60 minutes. If tomatoes are really juicy, this will take a little longer. Make sure to continue to stir every few minutes so it doesn’t burn. The longer they cook, the sweeter the sauce. As it begins to thicken, add more basil, slivered. Season with more salt and fresh black pepper.
- Allow to cool just a bit and put through a food mill with the medium disk. If you want a chunkier sauce, process in a food processor.
- At this point, you can either use the sauce or allow to cool completely and place in container of choice. I use freezer zip lock bags.
- Freeze for up to 4 months. To use, remove from freezer allow to warm up on counter or in frig.
