so...

[funeralcrasher]

How would I make tomato sauce from fresh-picked tomatos? (aside from putting them on the floor and stomping up and down)

Comments

A Tomato Sauce recipe... Part II

[trans-mag.livejournal.com]

As I was saying...

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, wait til the pot gets back up to medium again, and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Stir frequently and just let the water evaporate. It usually takes at least 45 minutes to an hour for this volume of sauce to lose enough water to thicken up to a nice consistency. Just keep simmering if you want it thicker, but remember that the overall volume of sauce you end up with will be correspondingly less.

It's *really* important to stir regularly and cook on the lowest simmer possible while still keeping the sauce gently bubbling, to avoid burning the sauce, and the danger of burning increases as the sauce gets thicker.

At the end, remove the bay leaves and toss them. They've done their work. And you *don't* want to bite into one of those guys in the middle of dinner! :-P

This recipe can be canned, like preserves, and will keep for quite a while. I usually just make enough at a time for the meals I intend to cook in the coming few days and store leftovers in the fridge. But when the tomatoes really start coming in in volume, I'll double or triple the recipe (make sure you have a big enough pot) and freeze the sauce in 2-3 cup portions. I just use heavy-gauge freezer bags and squeeze all the air out of them I can before zipping them up. Stored like this this, I can enjoy my own tomato sauce all winter! :-)

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but it's not, really. And remember that, if you go big with the recipe, you'll enjoy the benefits for months to come...

Let me know if you try it! :-)