How to make fresh tomato sauce, or How I spent my weekend

I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately, whipping up some fresh-from-the-garden goodies. Yesterday, it was tomato sauce.

It's really not difficult to make fresh tomato sauce, just a bit time consuming. But once you taste it, there really isn't any going back. Here's how it's done.

Plum tomatoes make the best sauce because they're pulpy and not as watery as full-sized tomatoes. Score the skin of each tomato lengthwise around its circumference with a sharp knife. Be careful not to cut too deeply.

Place all your scored tomatoes into a pot.

And cover with water.

Cover the pot and bring water to a boil. Allow to boil for 3 minutes.

Strain into a collander in the sink.

They'll be way too hot to handle, so rinse with cold water.

Remove skins; they'll peel off easily.

This is my bowl of skins. Add yours to the compost pile.

Simmer the pot of juicy, peeled tomatoes for about an hour.

Crush the softened tomatoes with a potato masher, or use an immersion blender. That's what I did. Then drizzle in some olive oil, add a bit of salt and simmer a little longer.

Add crushed garlic and chiffonade basil (that means cut into thin strips).

Stir and add to jars. At this point, if you're hardcore and have made gallons of sauce, you can use Mason jars and can your sauce properly to last all winter. I only made a few quarts, so I'm storing some in the fridge for use during the week. I poured the rest into a couple of freezer-safe zipper-top plastic bags and placed in the freezer.

Bon appetit!

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