Sauce

yes, I know I have posted sauce before, but every time I make some, I do it differently.
So, why not keep posting about it?
Also, I took all these pictures, so I can't let them go to waste! hahaha.

Let's get started.

Step one: pick a ton of tomatoes from your garden. Or someone else's garden.
Or get them at a farm stand. Or just get them from the market.
Doesn't matter. Just make sure you have a bunch.
And a bunch of fresh basil.
Also acquired from one of the above sources.

Next, blanch the tomatoes to get the skins off.
Blanching is a process where you drop fruits or vegetables into boiling water, then into ice water. It helps get skins off, and also helps certain foods retain their color during cooking.
Before you blanch the tomatoes, use a paring knife to mark them with an X (also known as a hatch mark).   Once they are hatch marked, drop the tomatoes into simmering water for about 30 seconds, or until the skins peel off. Then drop them into a bowl of cold/ice water.

 

Next, peel off the skins , cut them into large chunks, and drop them into a large pot.
Oh, and as I was putting them into the pot, I was also squeezing them in my hand, so that helped mush them up.

Once they were all in the pot, I got to work with my hand blender.
I love this tool!
If you don't have one, get one.
But, in a pinch, put the tomatoes in the blender, then pour them into the pot.

Let them simmer for a long, long time...

Ok, now while the tomatoes are simmering, let's work on some oil that we'll be adding to it.
First, put about a cup of oil into a small sauce pot and warm it on low heat.
Then chop up a bunch of garlic and a bunch of basil, add it to the oil, and top it off with some salt and pepper.

After about 10-15 minutes, turn the burner off, cover the pot, and just let it sit and be happy for a while.
Because the tomatoes still have many hours of simmering to go.

Here they are after one hour...

And 2 hours...

And 3 hours...

After a few hours, I added the basil/garlic oil to the mix, and gave it another quick stir with my hand blender.

I also got hungry at this point, so I boiled a little spaghetti, and put some of the sauce on top.
Hey, a girl needs to eat!

Now, this sauce was Very good, and I could have stopped here.
But I like very thick, very dark red sauce, so I had to keep going.
But it was late, and I was tired. So I put the sauce into the fridge, then went to bed.
The next day I put it back onto the stove and let it simmer for another couple of hours.

Look how nice it is reducing!

That's it!
Here's the last picture I took before I put it into Ziploc bags and popped it into the freezer for later.
Look how nice and dark and thick it is!
YUM!!!

See ya soon!