Red Sauce Italian Style

On Tuesday night I finally had enough time to get outside and harvest my roma tomatoes. My plan was to make spaghetti sauce to freeze and use this winter. My tomato bushes had a TON of tomatoes on them (or so I thought....they cook down more than I expected them too!) Here's a shot of my Roma bushes that are planted in my raised bed on the west side of the house. Next year I think I am going to move them to the planter on the south side of the house because I don't think they received enough sunlight/heat in their current location.




Here are the ingredients I started with -- all from my garden! Patty pan squash, roma tomatoes & onions. I was also planning on adding green peppers & some celery to my sauce, but about the time I was picking tomatoes my friend Stacy showed up and was absolutely horrified at the idea of tainting my sauce with peppers, squash & celery. Since Stacy is a bonafide italiana with sauce-cooking relatives across the Atlantic I thought it best to listen to her and stick to the basics: tomatoes, garlic, onions, olive oil, basil, salt & pepper.









First step was peeling the tomatoes - this was easier than I thought it would be -- just blanch until the skin cracks and then slip the fleshy part out. Voila!












My helpful sous chef, Stacy, and her trusty vizsla side-kick, Gus.










I sauteed the onions in a little bacon fat & olive oil - then added the garlic. Once these were getting aromatic I added the tomatoes that I had blended up and set the whole mess on low to simmer for about 2 hours and cook down. At the very end I added about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil from our garden -- and that was it! It did not make as much sauce as I had hoped...maybe about 4 cups....but it was a fun process and very tasty. Perhaps I will plant more romas next year so I can prepare sauce to last an entire winter!

The finished simple red sauce!