One of the greatest joys of gardening is being able to cook the food that you grow and share it with others. Tomato sauce is super easy to make, though it can take quite a bit of prep work. However, once you taste this sauce all that prep work won’t matter a single bit. Read on for my homegrown, homemade & fresh from the garden tomato sauce recipe.
Ingredients:
- 5 lbs of Tomatoes
- 2 T Olive Oil
- 1 Chopped Onion
- 5 Chopped Cloves of Garlic
- 2 Cups of Roughly Chopped Fresh Herbs (I used Oregano, Chives, Lemon Thyme & Basil)
- 1 Chopped Gypsy Pepper
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1 T Sugar
- ½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Method
- Fill a large pot with water and heat on high until it boils.
- While the water is heating prep your tomatoes by cutting out the cores & stems. Also, carve an X on the bottom of each tomato. This will make removing the skins easier.
- Once the water is boiling drop a few tomatoes into the pot with a slotted spoon and let sit until the tomato skin starts to blister, about 5 minutes depending on the size of the tomato.
- While the tomatoes are flash boiling, fill a large bowl with ice water. Once the skins are blistered remove the tomatoes from the pot with a slotted spoon & immediately drop the tomatoes into the ice water. This will help cool down the tomatoes for handling.
- Remove the cooled down tomatoes & peel off the skins easily. Place the peeled tomatoes in a large bowl.
- Repeat process 3-5 until all of your tomatoes are peeled.
- Throw out the water from the large pot, place the pot on low heat & add in olive oil.
- Add in the onion and garlic and cook on low until caramelized.
- Add in peeled tomatoes and continue cooking on low, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in chopped fresh herbs, chopped pepper, salt, pepper & sugar.
- Cover the pot, cook on low & stir occasionally for 2 hours. Keep an eye on the sauce, chunky sauce takes less time than smooth sauce. Cook until your desired consistency.
- Add in parmesan cheese right before you finish cooking the sauce.
- Enjoy!
Tips
- I use a whisk to stir my sauce about halfway through to make a less chunky sauce.
- Once the sauce is finished cooking you can pour it into a blender for a super smooth consistency.
- Asiago is another delicious cheese add-in for tomato sauce.
There really is nothing like a homemade sauce made from fresh grown tomatoes from your own garden. Once you grow your own tomatoes, store-bought ones end up tasting like water. Click here for my article about 3 ways to grow a ton of tomatoes. For this recipe, I also used my homegrown garlic, herbs and peppers. The flavor from these ingredients just can’t be beaten when you grow them yourself, especially basil. I highly recommend growing all of them in your own garden because they are easy to grow and will give you an abundant harvest that you are sure to enjoy.
This recipe makes the perfect amount of sauce for lasagna. I have a habit of making the sauce and the lasagna on the same day, which is a lot of work, let me tell you. I did just that on the day that I made this sauce and while I always regret it when I’m in the midst of doing it, it always ends up feeling so satisfying being able to enjoy your homemade lasagna with homegrown & homemade sauce. I have a great lasagna recipe that I’ll post in a few weeks so stay tuned for that!
The Plantiful Gardener 