Homemade Tomato Sauce | HealthyMammas

Homegrown Tomatoes – Homemade Pasta Sauce

June 10, 2011 by Melissa

To quote Guy Clark “What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes…Only two things that money can’t buy…That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes”

That just about sums up how we feel around our house about homegrown tomatoes! We can’t get enough of them…our favorite slicers, cherry tomatoes, Romas…you name it, we love them! We grow so many that on some summer days it feels like they are everywhere…dangling from plants, covering counter space! We eat as many as we can…we share with friends and family…and we’ve even been known to take a wagon full down to our neighborhood swim meet

We are lucky gardeners here in central Texas…we can plant tomatoes in the spring for summer eating and again in late summer for fall eating. The fall tomatoes are not quite as divinely delicious as summer tomatoes…but they are still better than any you will find in the produce section of your grocery store! Summer tomatoes need to be planted in the early spring. We plant our transplants the first week of March. You have to get them in the ground and matured enough to fruit before it gets too hot. If it gets too hot…over 90 degrees or so, they won’t fruit. We’ve got some hot weather here in central Texas…and it gets hot fast. So, it’s important to get them in the ground early…but, of course not so early that you risk a late frost/freeze hitting them.

Our favorite varieties…and the ones we’ve had the most luck in growing are:

Slicers – Celebrity and Better Boy

Cherry Tomatoes – Sun Gold or Sweet 100

Roma Style – San Marzano

One of our favorite tomato recipes is a homemade pasta sauce…it’s simple, wholesome, and delicious! We serve it over our favorite pasta with warm crusty bread on the side and a fresh garden salad. We think the key to getting such a great tasting sauce is by using fresh homegrown ingredients. But, keep in mind, if you don’t have the means or the time to do your own gardening….you can find amazingly delicious organic tomatoes and other veggies at your local farmer’s market! Check it out and visit it often…support your local gardeners!

In this recipe we used these fresh Roma ~ San Marzano tomatoes…just looking at the photo makes my mouth water! Another batch of this sauce might be in our near future

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Recipe type: Main

Author: Melissa

This is a very simple and very delicious pasta sauce recipe. It’s one of our favorites this time of year when we have a bunch of garden fresh tomatoes. The key to this recipe is using organic, homegrown tomatoes & onion. We typically use Roma style tomatoes…our favorite is the San Marzano. The Roma styles simply have less juice in them so they don’t take as much time to “cook down”. However, if we have an abundance of other varieties such as slicers, and we don’t want them to go bad, we will use those too. If you wish, you can remove the tomato skins prior to chopping them by blanching the tomatoes. But, we don’t take that extra step…we simply don’t mind the tomato skins in our sauce. You can either serve it immediately, or you can store it in sealed mason jars and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Makes (2) pint jars.

Ingredients

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium garden fresh sweet onion (our favorite is Yellow Granex) ~ chopped
4.5 to 5lbs garden fresh Roma style (such as San Marzano) tomatoes ~ chopped
2 Tbl. fresh oregano ~ chopped
2 tsp sugar
sea salt ~ to taste

Instructions

In a large saute pan, saute the chopped onion in olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent
Add chopped tomatoes, fresh oregano, sugar, and salt
Simmer on medium-low heat for 45 to 60 minutes or until desired thickness, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking
About 30 minutes into cooking, taste and add additional salt if needed.

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