Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

So my garden is overflowing with tomatoes. I want to make some sauce that I can freeze for the winter. Anyone has an awesome recipe that I can make and freeze?

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

Sautee chopped up garlic and onions in olive oil. Throw in as many tomatoes as you want (probably cut them up first). Puree the sauce with an immersion blender. Add some basil and simmer for an hour or two. If its too thin, add a small jar of tomato paste.

ed: I always make my own sauce and freeze it. This is essentially what I do, except I usually use canned tomatoes, but I would love to try it with fresh.

Message edited 8/12/2011 3:36:52 PM.

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

Everyone always says how easy it is to make sauce from scratch and that they would never buy jar, but yet only one response. Where's the love. Is making sause a family secret. I really want to know. Thanks NASPO9 for replying.

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

I do it a little differently.

We don't use cans/jars. We make our own yearly and jar it ourselves- actually doing that on Saturday. We make a huge amount for the entire family..and that's a whole different process.

But, when I have some extra tomatoes and want fresh sauce, this is what I do. Make sure the tomatoes are really ripe. I boil a pot of water. Throw in tomatoes for a few minutes, until they are soft and skin is just starting to fall off. then take them out and peel, try to get as many seeds as you can out by squeezing. I like a chunky sauce, so I don't put them through a blender or processor, but I'm sure you can.

Once the tomatoes are all peeled, I heat up some olive oil and garlic, add a few leaves of basil- add in the sauce..cook for at least about 2 hours. Then I let it cool and pour into tupperwares. this is cooked sauce..you'll just need to defrost & heat up.

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

You will need to peel the tomatos. the easiest way to do it i have found is to make an "X" in the top and bottom of the tomato and throw in boiling water for a minute or so until the skin starts to come off. Peel, cut in half and squeeze to get the seeds out. This point you can puree, cut in chunks, throw in whole and crush as they cook. First I saute onions in olive oil, then I add many chopped cloves of garlic, then in go the tomatos. Then just cook and cook with some fresh basil. If I am making sauce for pizza, I add oregano. Sea salt helps break down the tomatos.

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes

I think that most people use canned, not fresh tomatoes when they say they wouldn't use sauce from a jar.

Here's how I make mine form fresh tomatoes (I usually get from my MIL's garden or the farmer's market)

get a big dutch oven... and heat it on med/high.

wash & halve the tomatoes (taste them too!) and place them face down in the dutch oven (I used maybe 9 tomatoes)... you can pile them. season them with some salt and pepper. if they weren't very sweet, add some sugar. add a teaspoon of vanilla extract (it's good, i promise!) let the tomatoes cook and soften... and press down on them with a potato masher to help release the juices. reduce the heat and let the tomatoes simmer for about 2 hours until they become a thick paste (it will reduce down A LOT).

smash some cloves of garlic (i used maybe 6 or 7, but I loooove garlic) and toss them in. add a ton of basil, roughly chopped or halved. and finish with some extra virgin olive oil.

for this, you don't have to peel the tomatoes... they break down completely and when the sauce is finished, if you'd like, you can take the peels right out

Re: Making Sauce w/ fresh tomatoes