Easy Tomato Sauce (T.B.G.) …with fresh tomatoes.
5-7# Tomatoes (Beef Steak, “Vine Ripe”, or Roma)
¼-⅓ c. Garlic, finely chopped
6 oz Tomato Paste (1 small can)
3-4 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 bunch of Basil, tied in a bouquet with butcher's twine
Method:
Prepping the Tomatoes
Select ripe Beefsteak or Roma Tomatoes.
Rinse all of your tomatoes.
Put a large pot of water on the stove on high heat and bring to a boil.
While you are waiting for the water to come up to a boil, use a serrated paring knife to core out the stem or each tomato; and make a cross hatch (an “x”) across the skin on the bottom of each.
Your water may be ready before you are done prepping your tomatoes, if so, turn it down low so you can quickly bring it back up when you are ready.
Drop 6-8 tomatoes, or whatever fits, in the pot of boiling water. They only need 30-45 seconds of exposure to get the skin to release. You can check a tomato, just pull one out with a pair of tongs and test if the skin will easily peel away at the “x”. If the skin easily peels away, remove the tomatoes to a sheet tray. You don’t need to shock them since we are going to cook them. They will cool enough on their own. Continue to work in batches that fit in your pot without overflowing the water.
Remove the skin from all of the tomatoes. A serrated paring knife can be helpful to get a grip on the skin and scrape it away. It should slip off easily.
Cut each tomato in half crosswise to expose the seed pocket.
Use your fingers to pull the seeds out of each tomato half. You can do this work over a bow. These seeds and juice will be discarded. If you can get 95% of the seeds out, you are in good shape.
Fill a high speed blender with the peeled, skinned, and seeded tomato halves. Puree the halves until smooth. Or if you prefer, chunky. I am going for smoothness so I can use this sauce across lots of different applications. If I want a chunky tomato texture, I can concasse tomatoes later and add them to whatever I am cooking. It’s your call as far as consistency goes. You can even hand chop the tomato halve, although that is a lot more work.
Puree the tomatoes in as many batches as needed and set aside.
The Sauce:
You will need a large pot, or any pot that will fit the amount of pureed tomatoes you have produced with 1-2” or so of clearance from the rim.
Heat the pot over medium heat with the olive oil and chopped garlic. Get the garlic sizzling in the oil and then turn the heat down low. Gently cook the garlic over low heat. Stir it in the oil to expose all of the garlic to the heat. Cook the garlic until it is just beginning to become light brown. Not all of it has to be brown. Well browned garlic will give your sauce a dominant sweeter roasted garlic flavor. You could go that direction, but a lighter golden color will produce a sauce with a balanced flavor.
Add the tomato paste and stir it into the garlic. Incorporate the garlic and tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste over low heat. It will sizzle and try to stick to the bottom of the pot. You want to cook some of the moisture out of the paste and get some caramelization. It is ok if some of the paste sticks to the bottom and browns a bit. Avoid burning it. Cook out the paste for a couple minutes.
Add the pureed tomatoes. Stir the tomatoes, using them to “deglaze” the browned tomato paste from the bottom of the pot.
Season the sauce with salt. You will need more than you think. You can be pretty generous now, but you will likely need more along the way. The sauce will reduce down and concentrate. For this amount of sauce I would start with 1Tbs of salt.
Bring the sauce to a boil. Stir it frequently to help the paste to dissolve.
Reduce to a gentle simmer. Stir it every 15-30 minutes to make sure it is not sticking and burning on the bottom.
Fresh tomatoes will generally need to be cooked down to half of the original volume. This can take 2-3 hours depending on your definition of “gentle simmer”. As the sauce reduces, check the salt along the way. Salt will have a huge impact on the overall flavor of your sauce. An under seasoned tomato sauce lacks depth and acidity. You might be surprised by how much salt you will need to make your sauce taste good. Be conservative, if you are new to “seasoning to taste”. You can always adjust at the end.
Turn off the sauce. Tie up your bouquet of basil and place it in the sauce. You can stir it around and bruise it up a bit to get it to release its flavor. Allow the basil to steep in the sauce until it is cool then squeeze it out into the sauce and discard it.
Cooling and Storing:
If you plan to freeze the sauce, completely cool it then vacuum pack it in bags. I think 16oz portions are a good size. Vacuum bagging will prevent freezer burn and make you sauce safe in the freezer for up to 3 years.
I prefer to “Can” my tomato sauce in 16oz mason jars. I use a pressure canner. In this case I allow the basil to steep in the sauce for an hour. I then squeeze out the bouquet in to the sauce and discard it. From there the sauce goes back on the fire, so I can jump right into canning my tomato sauce using the hot pack method.
Tomato sauce can be an expensive product to buy at the market and it will never be as good as what you can make yourself. This is a low skill project, it just takes a bit of time. But once it is on the stove, the hard work is over and it truly becomes a backburner project.
