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.

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.

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.

Quick fresh garden tomato sauce

Donna Clark - Cooking at Clark Towers

a great way to use up some of your garden tomatoes

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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.