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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

FRESH HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE

Another weekend, another batch of tomatoes!  Of course, it's also, most likely, the last batch of the season. 

Hey there could be worse problems, right?

What to do with this batch of mostly plum tomatoes?

Fresh tomatoes from the garden
We decided to do something as an experiment...


I sliced and quartered them...


...and put them in the trusty Vitamix blender. 

Tomato sauce in Vitamix
I pulsed most of them on high for about 10 seconds.  Then I added a handful more and whizzed it around for only a few seconds, to keep it kind of chunky...well maybe not chunky, but thicker.  Skins, seeds and all.  You could do this in a regular blender but you might have to run it longer to make sure all the pieces are sufficiently chopped up.


Then we put it in a saucepan on the stove...


...and heated it to just bubbling.  Next, we turned it down to low and simmered it for about 45 minutes...


Or until reduced by about a 1/3 to 1/2.  Notice how the sauce went from a pale pink color to a deep, rich red.  


I put it in a container and let it cool...

Fresh tomato sauce
Then into the fridge to be used shortly.  We are going to freeze the next batch but were anxious to test this out so we will be cooking with it in a few days.  Here's the thing...there is no seasoning in this.  No salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, nothing.  We felt it was better to have an all natural and 100% pure tomato sauce that is not seasoned so we can use it for any tomato dish and season it according to the needs of the recipe.  

The funny thing is, after this reduced down and got thick, it was sweet!  It worked so well

Stay tuned!

16 comments:

  1. 1st Man,

    There's nothing better than sweet homemade sauce from your tomatoes to server over spaghetti. Enjoy your sauce!

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    Replies
    1. Isn't it wonderful? Yep I think we'll have spaghetti and meatballs, yum!!!

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  2. Wow what a great simple idea. Thx!

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    Replies
    1. You are welcome, we didn't look for anything just figured "lets see what happens if we do this', ha.

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  3. You can do that for green tomatoes too. Looks good. I have even frozen tomatoes whole in freezer bags with the air sucked out. It is pitiful. I can't remember the name of the machine.

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    Replies
    1. Ooh, green tomato sauce? Wow, I bet that would be wonderful. And whole toms frozen? I love that idea too. We have a Foodsaver, that would work. Thanks!!

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  4. I am always appalled when recipes for using tomatoes say to blanch and remove the skin and then to removed seeds/pulp. So, your using the whole tomato is a good move. The reason it was pink is all the air you whirred into the tomatoes.

    Happy eating.

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    Replies
    1. I always see that and wonder why it calls for that. I think the skin is good and healthy too. Yep, I didn't think about that but the air probably make it light and pink too.

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  5. Yum. And we leave the seeds in and the skin on too.

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    Replies
    1. Good to know. Those are probably where a lot of the nutrition is too.

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  6. Great idea - and so simple! I'm going to try this with some of my fall tomato crop. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Fall tomatoes I guess I need to get those in the ground soon. No seedlings, I'll just buy plants already growing. End of August maybe? This method was so good, cooking them down made such a rich wonderful tomato sauce.

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  7. Wow this is so simple and really would give you the raw, pure tomato taste huh? Thanks for sharing this technique. Awesome sauce (bwahaha, I couldn't resist). Misty

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    Replies
    1. It's raw-ish, but cooking it down really enriches and deepens the flavors, even without the addition of seasoning. We left it unseasoned at this point so that we could have the flexibility of different kinds of sauces.

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  8. Replies
    1. Thank you, we really enjoyed it. And it's super easy.

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