DIYS Gardening: Tomato Sauce
Last year I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. One of the reasons? I was unwilling to peel my tomato. It seems a little to much work. Then I found this wonderful YouTube video on blanching and peeling tomatoes. This video change my cooking life and let me try a different tomato sauce from the one I posted last year.




This sauce is pretty good. It just takes hours to cook. Start this one after lunch. The sauce is a little sweet, but that could be due to the Big Girl tomatoes from my garden. Try cutting the sweetness with more wine, wine vinegar, or salt. Try adding small amounts while cooking and tasting the results.

Homemade Tomato Sauce I

Ready In: 4 Hours 30 Minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients:
10 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Burgundy wine
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

Recipes Courtesy allrecipes.com