Redesigning My Life!

Here is a healthy all natural homemade Tomato Sauce recipe. (To make tomato sauce you have to have tomato paste, so below this recipe is also a recipe to make homemade Tomato Paste.) Bon A Petit! ...wait, that's French and tomatoes are typically used in Italian dishes Oh well!

Basic Tomato Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil




• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped




• 1 small carrot or 1/2 large carrot, finely chopped




• 1 small stalk of celery, including the green tops, finely chopped




• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley




• 1 clove garlic, minced




• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil




• 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped




• 1 teaspoon tomato paste




• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1 Heat olive oil in a large wide skillet on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and parsley. Stir to coat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are softened and cooked through.

2 Remove cover and add the minced garlic. Increase the heat to medium high. Cook for garlic for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, including the juice and shredding them with your fingers if you are using canned whole tomatoes. Add the tomato paste and the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a low simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered until thickened, about 15 minutes. If you want you can push the sauce through a food mill, or blend it with an immersion blender, to give it a smooth consistency.

Makes 2 1/2 cups of sauce.

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HOMEMADE TOMATO PASTE

Homemade tomato paste is remarkable. It is thick and sticky and gooey and sweet and transmits complete tomato essence to whatever you add it to. Plus, it's a great way to store a haul of tomatoes in a compact, useful fashion.

Use only the ripest (a bit too ripe is okay), sweetest, more delicious tomatoes you can find. I look for dry-farmed, vine-ripened tomatoes. To make tomato paste you'll need:

• 5 lbs. of tomatoes



• 1 tsp. sea salt
  


• About 1 cup good quality olive oil



• Large pot



• Food mill or large sieve



• Large rimmed baking pan



• Container(s) for the paste (2 or 3 half-pint jars with lids are perfect)
  

Preheat oven to 300°F. Remove and discard stems and any damaged parts from the tomatoes. Roughly chop the tomatoes and put them in a large pot.

Add about 1/2 cup olive oil and 1 tsp. salt to the tomatoes and bring them to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring, just until tomatoes soften, about 2 minutes.

Run the cooked tomatoes through a food mill or push them through a large sieve with a flexible spatula - you're trying to both turn the tomatoes into a pulp and remove the skins and seeds.

Pour tomato pulp onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake in a 300-degree oven.

Bake the tomato pulp for about 3 hours at 300°F degrees, stirring the mixture every 30 minutes or so. Be sure to scrape up the caramelized bit around the edges and to stir in the dried crust that will start to form on top - spreading the mixture evenly in the pan after each stir.

After about 3 hours, reduce oven heat to 250°F degrees. Continue baking (and stirring and scraping at regular intervals) until mixture is thick, shiny, and the color of bricks, 2 or 3 more hours.

Use a flexible rubber or silicone spatula to transfer the tomato paste to jars. You will have 2 to 3 cups. Leave room at the top of each jar to pour a thick layer of olive oil to protect the paste. Cover with lids and store for up to several months in the refrigerator. Each time you use some, make sure the surface of the tomato paste is again covered with oil. To reduce the chance of mold developing, make sure to use scrupulously clean utensils for removing tomato paste from the jar.