Tomato Sauce

We've got lots of tomatoes in the garden now, so on Tuesday it was time to make tomato sauce. I followed a recipe by Georgeanne Brennan that was part of an article she wrote in the SF Chronicle last July. It's a fairly basic recipe that calls for sauteed shallots and herbs along with the tomatoes. She suggests peeling the tomatoes after dunking them in hot water, but since I have a food mill, I just cooked them skin, seeds, and all and after grinding them, the skin and seeds stayed behind and went in the compost.

The sauce turned out great, but the only thing I was bummed about was that it didn't make enough! Eight pounds of tomatoes cooked down to only about nine cups, which I put into six freezer bags.

I was moaning to Vicki about this and told her that I was going to get a hold of Lattin Farms in Fallon and buy a whole boatload of toms. Lo and behold, Vicki called me a few hours later and told me that the Great Basin Food Coop had a post on Facebook that they were selling 25 lb. boxes of tomatoes for $.50 a pound! I hightailed it down there and was soon on my way home with a box of organic roma tomatoes grown at Rick Lattin's farm! Of course, I still wasn't happy with only twenty-five pounds, so dropped by today and bought two more boxes.

Now I've got two boxes of slicers and one of roma—tomorrow is sauce-making day, big time!

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Basic Tomato Sauce

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

I use mostly Shady Lady for this sauce because that is the variety I have that's most abundant in my garden, but you can use any meaty variety. If you are using Roma- type tomatoes, the cooking time will be less.

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 to 6 pounds medium to large juicy tomatoes, any variety, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 2 bay leaves, fresh if possible
• -- Kosher or sea salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions: In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. When warm, add the shallots and cook until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute, until softened.

Add the tomatoes, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring from time to time, until the sauce has thickened so much you can almost stand a wooden spoon upright in it, about 1 1/2 hours. You will hear the bubbling as it thickens, indicating it is almost ready.

To finish, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, stirring until the desired thickness. Be careful not to burn the sauce.

Taste, and add salt and pepper as desired. Puree or leave chunky, whichever you prefer. Cool and store up to 5 days in the refrigerator, or freeze.

Per 1/4 cup: 32 calories, 1 g protein, 5 g carbohydrate, 1 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 9 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.

Uses: Use on pizza, polenta, pasta, pan-seared steak or any time tomato sauce is required.

By Georgeanne Brennan, "From Vine to Freezer - Tomatoe Sauce for all Year" San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 26, 2009