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!