Vacationing friends of ours offered to let us have any ripe tomatoes from their community garden plot in our neighborhood. So this week I collected some tomatoes and then gave them some mint jelly in exchange.
A quart freezer bag of golden cherry tomatoes went in the freezer (just washed, let dry, put in a freezer bag). And with the 5 pounds of other ripe tomatoes, along with some of my garden basil, I made a basil tomato sauce.
The thing about making tomato sauce is that it takes a LOT of tomatoes to get a little sauce. But it's totally worth it. It's the simplest, most delicious tomato sauce you'll eat.
A quart freezer bag of golden cherry tomatoes went in the freezer (just washed, let dry, put in a freezer bag). And with the 5 pounds of other ripe tomatoes, along with some of my garden basil, I made a basil tomato sauce.
The thing about making tomato sauce is that it takes a LOT of tomatoes to get a little sauce. But it's totally worth it. It's the simplest, most delicious tomato sauce you'll eat.
For 5 pounds of tomatoes you get two half-pints. Here's how:
Image credit: Cale Ruiz
- Wash tomatoes, remove blossom ends, cut into quarters
- You can add some chopped onion and/or garlic if you like (1/4 cup onion per 5 pounds of tomatoes)
- Sauté the onion/garlic in a little olive oil until transparent in a large pot, add tomatoes, bring to boil, and let simmer for about 20 minutes
- Strain through a hand-held sieve to remove seeds and peels
- Put the sauce back in the large pot, add chopped basil, and simmer until reduced to half
- If you want to can, add 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice to each sterilized jar, process for 35 minutes
Image credit: Cale Ruiz