Homemade Tomato Sauce

There are basically three ways of making tomato sauce:

Method I: Skin, peel and dice the tomatoes by hand
Method II: Blanch the tomatoes in hot water to remove their skin then cut them up
Method III: Use a food mill or food grinder to crush the tomatoes

You can use any type of tomato you want to. Roma tomatoes are traditional and quite tasty! They are also the easiest to peel, as they have a smooth bulb like shape. Unfortunately, they can also be rather expensive! They are cheapest in the summer, so buy a bunch at your local farmers market in the summer and make some sauce!

I have made sauce all three ways now. If you have a food mill or food grinder, Method III really is the easiest way. You can make a lot of sauce this way!  But such devices are expensive and take up room!

Method I is the traditional (and in my opinion best)  method, but it is very time consuming. Also, if you don't have Roma tomatoes, then it gets difficult to peel them (some tomatoes have bumps, crevices and odd shapes that don't lend themselves to easy peeling!)

This recipe calls for Method II-blanching the tomatoes to remove their skin and then cooking them. I find it a pretty even compromise between taste, time and convenience. This is a relatively painless method, but you don't get much sauce--usually enough for 2 people for 2 days. But it serves its purpose!

This time, I shortened the recipe by making less. It worked out wonderful! The key is not to seed the tomatoes, as that takes way too long and you loose most of the soft tomato flesh.

The tomatoes and herbs were fresh from my garden which made it very delicious!


Ingredients
3 large tomatoes, fresh (you can use more if you have any)
2 large tomatoes, fresh (you can use more if you have any)
2 bell peppers, preferably red, cut in half, deseeded and destemed
Fresh tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, whole, skin on
1/2 red or yellow onion, diced
Pancetta, or ground beef, lamb or bacon (optional)
Rich Dark Chicken Stock or vegetable stock
Red Wine
1 or 2 bay leaves
A big bunch of fresh herbs (oregano, lemon thyme, basil, parsley and rosemary)





Directions
Boil a big pot of water.

Take 3 tomatoes and wash. Make four small, shallow incisions with a sharp paring knife from the top of each tomato to the bottom, cutting thinly through the skin.

Place the tomatoes in the boiling water. Let the tomatoes cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. If you dont have a slotted spoon you can jab a fork into the tomato on the stem side and submerge in the boiling water.

Immediately run under cold water and the skins should peel off fairly effortlessly. Set aside.


Heat up some olive oil in a cast iron pot. Add the pancetta, bacon or other meat. Cook for a few minutes, until their fat is released and the meat is cooked.










Add the onions and stir fry for a few minutes, until the onion loose their raw taste.

Chop up the 3 skinned tomatoes and add them to your pot. Be sure to add all the juices. Stir fry for a few minutes.

Add a little chicken stock and red wine and turn off the heat.






Take a cookie sheet and grease with olive oil. Add the red bell peppers, 2 tomatoes, and 3 garlic cloves.  Pour some more olive oil on all the vegetables. Set the rack in your oven just below the broiler. Set the broiler in your oven to high and broil for several minutes, until the tomatoes and bell peppers are charred. Turn and repeat. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes.

Once the bell peppers have cooled slightly, add them to a food processor. Add the tomatoes. Remove the garlic from their skin (they should just pop off) and add to the food processor. Blend all the ingredients until smooth. You should see little black flakes in the sauce from the charring of the bell peppers.

Add the blended tomatoes and bell peppers back to your pot. Reduce the heat to low and simmer. Add your herbs and continue to cook.

At this point, you can adjust with adding more stock or wine. I also add a little bit of tomato paste to thicken up the sauce.







If you have any fresh herbs, add them to the sauce. I had fresh basil, rosemary, lemon thyme, regular thyme, sage and parsley growing in my back yard garden, so I added all of them to the mix!

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