You Say Tomato...

I say tomato sauce! Yes, I know I rarely (okay pretty much never) blog about something other than my kids or dessert, but not today...

In previous years I did not have much success with making tomato sauce. It was either way too much work for a couple jars or way too watery. This year I planned not to make sauce because I knew I'd have a baby and I didn't want to plan on spending a bunch of time making something mediocre. So, because I like tomatoes, my plan was to plant two cherry tomato plants instead of my usual 4-6 beefsteak tomato plants. Well, I went to the peavy mart greenhouse and, can you believe it, I couldn't narrow my selection down to two plants. I bought three: golden cherry tomatoes, black cherry tomatoes, and a regular old red cherry tomato plant. And this is what happened over the summer:

The golden cherry tomato plant took over our deck. It was crazy. The vines crawled under our deck across the floor of our deck, and nearly made the stairs impassible. When the first frost was coming, I cut all the vines with tomatoes off because I had nothing to cover it with.

The black cherry tomato plant was so heavy with fruit that it tipped over and Jeff had to tie a rope around the shed to hold it up. 

The so-called patio cherry tomato plant was labelled wrong, and though the plant itself didn't grow very big it sure produced a lot of mid-sized tomatoes all squished together. 

On top of this, we were asked to take care of and help ourselves to our neighbour's normal cherry tomato plant. It grew so thick that when the frosts became constant the middle of the plant survived and kept growing delicious tiny tomatoes.

Now what? Truly the only answer is tomato sauce. I've now made three batches. They are all a little different due to using whichever tomatoes were ripe, but this sauce is tasty and easy.

My first batch I cooked and then put in the blender. The next two batches I blendered the tomatoes and onions before cooking. I found this easier since putting hot things in the blender is sometimes dangerous (ask me how I know that!). If I owned an immersion blender I would probably cook it up first, then blend. Anyways, here is how to make it:

Fill your large crockpot (slow cooker, whatever you want to call it) with tomatoes. Don't peel them. Don't seed them. Quarter them if they are big. (Now throw them in the blender if you and blending first... Filling up the crockpot is just how I measured how many tomatoes to use.) Add your onion. This batch I used four small ones from our garden. Then add all this stuff:

Big splash of olive oil

4 tbsps brown sugar

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 tsp salt

1/2 small can tomato paste

The tomato paste helps thicken it a little and also makes your sauce look more appealing if it is made mostly out of black and yellow tomatoes. Seriously, the first batch of sauce is a little weird looking since I didn't add the tomato paste.

Simmer in that pot on low for 8-10 hours. (I put it on high for the first hour to heat it up faster). Cool and spoon into jars. Safe to freeze for one year! One pot makes about 6 pint jars and takes very little effort. Two pint jars is a meal for us. Don't freeze stuff in those big mason jars, they crack (ask me how I know this!). Also tastes good as pizza sauce. I think I will be sad when the sauce runs out before next season and I have to buy it from the grocery store... Though I think I still have enough tomatoes left to make one smaller batch! Yum.

Disclaimer: I got the idea to not peel the tomatoes and blender them before cooking from someone at church. She's been making her sauce this way since forever. Then I surfed the internet for seasoning ideas and came up with this combo myself. Feel free to edit. I think it could use some parsley!