Harvest Bounty –
Fresh Tomato Sauce

We harvested organic heirloom tomatoes and basil this week and made fresh tomato sauce. Since we are foodies, being able to enjoy healthy gourmet pasta is wonderful. It’s one of the reasons we grow tomatoes in our container garden. Of course, another is we love raw tomato sammies and salads. (The other day we had raw Cherokee Purple tomatoes as a side dish. Yummo!)

As we’ve encouraged before, growing at least some of your own food gives you an opportunity to experience healthy gourmet food at home, at a fraction of the cost of restaurant food. This is one great reason to try container gardening, if you don’t have a sunny patch in your yard to garden.

You can use the pulp (see below) for making tomato bread. We use the tomato pulp for compost.

So, we thought you would enjoy trying this recipe for fresh tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. Organic Olive Oil
Organic Heirloom Tomatoes (A mixture of types is best, even better than having all Romas. The more tomatoes you use, the more sauce you’ll have.)
2 tbsp. Organic Tomato Paste (for every 2-5 lbs. of tomatoes processed)
4 Cloves Organic Garlic
1 Large Organic Onion (seasonal variety)
1/2 cup Organic Fresh Basil Leaves
Himalayan Salt and Organic Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Take the stems off your tomatoes and wash them. Chop tomatoes into 1/2″ to 1″ pieces.
2. Heat heavy bottom pan, and when it’s hot, coat the bottom with the olive oil.
3. When the olive oil shimmers, add the chopped tomatoes to the pan (cores and seeds and jelly included). Reduce heat to medium.
4. Cook tomatoes until they are soft.
5. Take the pan off the heat and let tomatoes cool until you can handle them.
6. Scoop the tomato mixture into a food mill or fine mesh sieve, strain out the cores and seeds from the mixture.
7. Reserve the tomato sauce.
8. Wipe out the pan and add a bit more olive oil.
9. Saute the onions until they are translucent and then add the garlic.
10. Saute the onions and garlic until the onions are slightly golden and the garlic is soft.
11. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to stick to your pasta.
12. Just before serving rip basil leaves into pieces and stir in the sauce.
13. Serve over cooked organic brown rice or quinoa pasta.
14. Sprinkle sauced pasta with parmesan cheese.