Seeing Red(sauce)

Well - first of all - here are all the types of squash from the garden, just showing them to you all together.


Okay! Now on to the tomatoes! Some of these are mine, but most are from my mom's tomato jungle.


I've never made my own read sauce. I've never really made anything from my garden tomatoes except slices. I usually don't get enough to go through any real trouble. But since I was given all these tomatoes I figured I would give some red sauce a try. So since I don't follow recipes well but had no idea what to do, I just looked up 'red sauce to freeze' on Google. I read about five or six versions of what to do. Then I just went into the kitchen to give it a shot.

First you have to peel the tomatoes. In order to do that you blanch them (drop into boiling water for about a min, or until the skin splits - then drop into ice water to cool off). So I ended up with a pile if skinless tomatoes - which I will say look like hearts, and feel kinda gross... but hey - whatever. My fingernails looked like I had been bleeding. Okay, yuk - back to the food!


After they were peeled I had to core them, get the seeds out, and cut them into chunks. This is about an 8-10 qt bowl of tomato meat.


I sauteed some onion - about one medium, and about five gloves garlic. Took those out of the pan and added the tomatoes. I let them cook as I mushed them. About 30 min, till they were softer.


Then I went outside and picked some herbs - basil, oregano and thyme. Chopped those up and added them into the tomatoes. Added a little sugar because that's what everyone else did (but I forgot how much, so I just threw in a palm full).


After this I started thinking it was too chunky. Which is a-okay with me, but if I wanted my kids to eat this, which of course I did, it would need to loose the chunks.
Tomatoes = Bad. Red = Good.
So I ladled it out and into the food processor. A couple of spins later it was back in the pan. I also put the onion garlic mixture into the food processor and gave them a whirl. And then I got tricky! I grabbed some cooked carrots (cause orange is pretty much red people!) and gave them a whirl and added them to the sauce as well. More secret veggies for the kiddos - they'll never know. For that matter, neither will the husband. All in and on the stove for some slow cooking and reducing. I put the flame on low and just let is sit for about two hours, stirring every once in a while.


And after a couple of hours and some flavor adjustments - it was too sweet and I had to counter with vinagar and salt - I let it cool on the stove for about 30 min. Then I got it ready to freeze. About 2 - 2 1/2 cups in each freezer bag and about 2 or more cups into 1 1/2 ice cube trays. (I always freeze red sauce in ice cube trays and then pop the cubes out and into a freezer bag for quick use - otherwise I would waste a lot, which I used to do all the time.)


So that is my first ever red sauce. I think I will leave out the sugar and basil next time due to the sweet factor - I'm not a fan of sweet red sauce. Husband said it tasted just like REAL red sauce... go figure!

You can freeze it for up to a year - but I'm sure we will have eaten it way before then!

Next up - purple pole beans (they're so purple!)