End of Summer Tomato Sauce

It's been a while since I really got down and dirty in the kitchen. Since moving, most of my cooking has been sustenance-related, creativity-lacking quick meals. I'd forgotten how wonderful it can feel to gather fresh, amazing ingredients and turn them into something new and equally amazing.

This tomato sauce was a labor of love that I spent a long time on. I've made it again since, in a larger quantity and shorter time, but that first sauce was truly a masterpiece. It's made up of very very few ingredients. It's so simple but the amount of work put in definitely has a direct correlation with how much you want to drink the sauce by itself when you're done.

Since summer is quickly coming to an end and with it goes all of my freetime, I thought it deserved one last hurrah in a naked, pure, uncensored tomato sauce. Please enjoy.

Natural Tomato Sauce

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

8-9 plum tomatoes

Spicy garlic basil olive oil*

Italian seasonings to taste (oregano, crushed black pepper, marjoram, sage)

16 oz. pasta (I used one bag of Trader Joe's Fusilli)

Instructions

1. Blanch** tomatoes and remove skins

2. Cut each tomato and remove all seeds and innards

3. Add tomatoes and salt in a large saucepan and turn up the eat.

4. Breakdown tomatoes. I used an immersion blender, but I would have used a potato masher if I could find it to allow for a better sense of texture.

5. When tomatoes begin to boil, turn down heat. Simmer for 30-45 minutes stirring and mashing as needed

6. Take this time to prep your olive oil and cook your pasta in the leftover blanching water

7. When sauce reaches desired consistency, add the olive oil and season.

8. Mix in cooked pasta or just serve over top and enjoy!

I mixed some in with the pasta and reserved the rest in jars. This tasted amazing with bread as well!

Garlic Basil Red Pepper Infused olive oil

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 garlic clove

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (vary this based on your spice preference)

5-6 large basil leaves, whole

Instructions

1. combine garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes with olive oil over low heat.

2. Stir occasionally and allow to simmer very slowly

3. Strain into a small dish or jar and add to sauces or enjoy with parmesan and bread

**Blanching tomatoes

my grandma uses this method to make it easier to remove the skin from the tomatoes, but Smitten Kitchen used the great addition of cutting an X into each tomato first.

1. Boil water in a large pot.

2. Cut an X at the bottom of each tomato and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds.

3. Shock tomatoes in an ice bath and then peel skins

(Keep the water for boiling pasta later)

#food #tomato #sauce #kitchentips