Homemade tomato sauce, oh how I love thee! Freshness and other benefits aside, a principal reason for making your own sauce is the ability to control its specific flavor. Many of our family recipes call for tomato sauce, the seasoning of which will influence the overall flavor of the dish. When away from Greece, I strive to precisely replicate my mother-in-law’s cooking. Using homemade tomato sauce is one of the ways I go about doing this.
While we typically can our sauce, this recipe is written with freezing as the preservation method, for two reasons. First, the canning recipe calls for a generous amount of salt, which may not be well suited for those following a low sodium diet. Second, canning authorities in the United States advise strongly against canning without the use of citric acid, vinegar, or lemon juice; none of which are included in this recipe. By freezing, these issues are circumvented entirely.
Ingredients
- 13 pounds ripe tomatoes
- 12 medium red onions
- 12 green bell peppers
- 14 cloves garlic
- 11 handfuls fresh basil leaves
- 11 bay leaves
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
- Certain farmers markets will sell boxes of “canning tomatoes”. These tomatoes are deemed unattractive and sold at a discount, yet are perfectly suitable to eat. If you have access to a farmers market, it is worth exploring this avenue to purchase your tomatoes
- Wash the tomatoes
- Core and cut the tomatoes in four
- Blend the tomatoes until pureed. Once pureed, pour into a large pot. You will need to blend the tomatoes in multiple rounds to get through all 13 pounds
- Wash the peppers, cut in four, and remove the stem and seeds
- Peel the onion and garlic
- Cut the onion in four
- Blend the peppers, onion, and garlic until pureed and pour into the pot
- Roughly tear the basil leaves
- Add the basil, bay leaf, and olive oil to the pot
- Stir and bring to a boil over high heat
- Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce to medium heat and continue to boil uncovered
- As the water evaporates, the sauce will reduce and thicken
- Once the sauce has reduced by half, check the consistency
- If the desired thickness has been achieved, turn off the heat and let cool
- Once cool, store in individual freezer safe containers keeping the portion sizes to the amount you plan to use for individual recipes
