When life gives you a summer n'oreaster.....

Make sauce!!! Lots & lots of sauce!!


Last week we received even more tomatoes in our CSA share from Plato's Harvest Organic Farm

(yes, that's a big, beautiful, juicy watermelon :)


Onto sauce.... I know that I posted my quick fresh sauce recipe, but now I'm going for the big guns.. the 'stock the freezer' sauce.. the 'I like to pretend I'm an Old Italian grandmother' sauce...


The sauce that I will defrost for my homemade ravioli on Christmas sauce.

Yup.. that's the sauce..

Start by finding some big, comfy socks & turning on some corny 70's tunes

♬♬♬  If you like Pina Coladas♬♬♬


Bring a large pot of water to a boil  & also fill a large bowl with ice water


♬♬ Getting caught in the rain♬♬♬♬

Turn your maters upside down & with a paring knife, make an X in the bottom

 ( I can't see my X's.. perhaps I took the picture first?)

go ahead, make the X

♬♬♬ and the feel of the ocean♬♬♬♬

When the water is boiling, add a few tomatoes at a time & let boil for just about a minute

( take a sip of your coffee )

♬♬and the taste of Champagne♬♬♬


then, using a spider or tongs, remove tomatoes & quickly plunge into the ice bath

The skins should easily peel away

♬♬♬ why don't we peel away..baaam bamm abmm abaa baaamp..peel aaawwaay, into the  night♬♬♬

repeat with all of the tomatoes

( you can use this method to take the skins of of fruits like peaches & plums as well...)

When all of the tomatoes are skinned, dump the water from the stockpot , dry it, ( no need to wash it).. place back on the stove over medium heat & add some olive oil.

When the oil shimmers, add some chopped onion, carrots & celery... season with salt & pepper

yes, I have a purple carrot in there :)

once the veggies caramelize a bit ( you see a little browning ) add some finely chopped garlic ( add this right at the end, because if the garlic is in the pan too soon without liquid, it will burn & scorch & taste yucky)


))) burnt garlic((((


give the veggies one last swirl together

♬♬♬ Night Fever,  Night fevaaaaa  you know how to do it♬♬♬

then, start adding the tomatoes , cutting the cores out as you go..

WHOA!!  did you noticed how my pan changed colors???


♬♬♬♬Saturday.. in the park, I think it was the 4th of July♬♬♬♬

add a couple of bay leaves, kosher salt & pepper, some dried oregano & basil & bring to a simmer.

throw in some 80's tunes

♬♬ I've had the time of my life.. no I've never felt like this before♬♬♬

and let your sauce simmer

and simmer

♬♬♬ Nothing's gunna stop us now...♬♬♬

and simmer

your sauce will get thicker & a deeper color red as the day goes on...

stir it once in awhile and enjoy the amazing aroma..

♬♬♬wasting away again in Margaritaville♬♬♬

I let mine simmer for a good 4 hours. when the sauce is looking thicker... remove the bay leaves then..

 you can do one of 3 things.

1) leave it thick & chunky, test for salt & pepper

2) let cool & blend in batches in a blender; test for seasonings
or
3) use an immersion blender to puree; test for seasonings


I personally don't mind it chunky, but if I leave it chunky, I find that certain family members pick out some of the veggies; by pureeing the sauce, the eat them without knowing ;)



If you can eat it within a week, I store it in a mason jar, just make sure that it is completely cool before you put the lid on..

You also could can it at this point, but I chose to freeze it in portions in zip-lock freezer bags..

after, of course we had some with our sketti & meatballs last night.


This might seem like a lot of work to get from this

to this

but it is so worth it. If you have the opportunity to make sauce from scratch, I highly recommend it.

it is  very gratifying to look at the product at the end of the day.

not the mention to taste it :)


~oxoxo
michelle


♬♬everybody's talkin' bout the new sound honey, but it's still rock & roll to me ♬♬♬♬