Quick garden fresh tomato sauce

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Over the years I have processed my tomatoes using different methods. Freezing them as sauces, freezing them as chunks and cooking down and canning them as well. I can’t say that I loved anything that I have done before or that I have a true plan of what to do with all of them.. This year I have so far made salsa, spaghetti sauce and yesterday I made pizza sauce. All were successes.

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I used my potato smasher to breakdown the tomatoes even more

Yesterday I was also canning the last of the pickles, I have a ridiculous 50 pint size jars of pickles and since the water was already boiling I processed the salsa we didn’t eat so we could have it for later. I think I have found out how to deal with all the tomatoes last Wednesday night after work I made homemade spaghetti sauce and Italian meatballs for dinner. They were delicious and I used up all of the ripe tomatoes I had on hand. Yesterday I made pizza sauce with the next batch of ripe tomatoes.
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I like this recipe for fresh garden tomato sauce because it came together fast enough for a weeknight dinner. My husband was pretty surprised I pulled it off in only a few hours; most of it hands off. He thought you had to cook them down pretty much all day to have it taste good. Proved him wrong.
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Quick fresh garden tomato sauce

Donna Clark - Cooking at Clark Towers
a great way to use up some of your garden tomatoes
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 40 mins
Total Time 50 mins

Ingredients
  

  • 5-8 pounds tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • handful chopped basil
  • 2 bay leaf

Instructions
 

  • If you are using a food mill don't worry about getting all the seeds and skins off.
  • If you are not using a food mill you will want to cut the tomatoes in half horizontally and squeeze the seeds into a garbage bowl. And you could grate each side of the tomato on a box grate and throw the skins into the garbage bowl.
  • If you are using a food mill then just chunk up each tomato, I cut around any of the ugliness and the stems.
  • Add either the chunked tomatoes or the tomato pulp into a low but wide saucepan over high heat. Add the salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a brisk simmer.
  • Reduce the sauce to almost half, stirring occasionally. Until the sauce is medium-thick or to your liking. Season with salt to your taste.
  • If you are making meatballs like I did, add them to your sauce, it will help season the sauce.

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Had to throw some of my sunflowers into the picture!

 

 

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