Have you ever made your own tomato sauce?
Despite it being an easy process, most people haven’t! It takes time to cook down the tomatoes, but the result is with it. You can season your sauce exactly to your liking.
Your homemade tomato sauce can be stored in the fridge for 5-7 days if you want to enjoy it right away. Or you can freeze it for 3 months or can it to preserve it for up to a year.
With SLO CSA shares you can get the tomatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, and basil for this recipe.
Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 1-2 hours
INGREDIENTS
- 5 lbs. tomatoes, rough chopped (peel and core ahead to avoid straining later)
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 onion, rough chopped
- 3 T dried Italian seasoning
- 2 t salt
- 1 t sugar
- 3 T olive oil
- Fresh basil when serving
DIRECTIONS
- Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook onions on medium heat until translucent.
- Add tomatoes and bring to a boil, then reduce to low/medium low.
- Add sugar, Italian seasoning, salt and garlic.
- Simmer uncovered for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. (Longer cooking breaks down the veggies making it easier to strain and blend later.)
- Let cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender to desired thickness.
- Strain our seeds with a colander.
- Adjust seasonings as needed.
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Store in the fridge for 5-7 days, freezer for 3 months, or canned up to a year. If your pH is below 4.6, only can using a pressure cooker.
TIPS
Process tomatoes in a food mill before cooking to skip the straining step. Add tomato paste to thicken.
Use a combination of tomato varieties for more flavor. Roma tomatoes are best since they have less seeds and more flesh.
Spice up your sauce by adding peppers at step #2!
Items Available from SLO:
You can get organic and local ingredients for this recipe with a SLO CSA share. We have tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil.