Thursday, November 14, 2013

Fresh Tomatoes Pasta Sauce

I have known for a while that canned items are not good for us.
The metal in the can leach into the food and or the white liner in other cans can leach BPA... and we eat it.
So we have cut out pretty much everything canned in the last couple of years...everything but canned tomatoes. 
I used canned tomatoes for a lot of recipes...
Truth is, tomatoes are acidic, and are the worst thing you can get from a can.
So in the last few months, I decided to try perfect a tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes.

Here is what I do.
Start by chopping an onion and a couple of carrots (+ 1 stalk of celery if you have it), and brown it in 4-5T of Olive Oil.

Wash your tomatoes (I used about 4lb)
cut in quarters and blend away. Skin and all.

Add the pinkish froth tomatoes to the browned veggies, 
add salt to taste and add some basil, bring to a boil.
 Then turn down to medium/low and cook for 2 hours.

*** I use very little salt upfront, and adjust the salt at the end of the cooking time, when the sauce is thicker and the extra water evaporated***

After the first hour, the sauce color will turn into a deeper red color, but still looking kind of soupy.

Now leave the lid completely off, and cook for the second hour, making sure it is still bubbling (not boiling).

Leaving the lid off, will allow the extra natural water in the tomatoes to evaporate, leaving you with a thicker sauce.
This is by far the best homemade sauce I have made up to now.

This makes a larger batch, so I can freeze the rest and use at a later time.

Stay Frugal,
Daniela



7 comments:

NanaDiana said...

I often freeze fresh tomatoes and puree them for tomato sauce. They are so much better for you! Great post, Dani- xo Diana

Mindi@MyLove2Create said...

This is so cool! I like the idea of making and freezing it!

Donna@anangloinquébec said...

I have cut down on what we use from cans as well. It really feels to me like we have to go back to the traditional way of all cooking. I started a vegetable garden this summer for that reason. Thanks for reminding me, because tomatoes are one thing I find we use so much of in our cooking.

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Daniela,
That pays off for doing it this way! We have to be so careful in all what we consume or use.
Hugs,
Mariette

Khammany said...

I'll bet this is yummy and especially being made by an Italian, I wish I could taste it!

Amy of While Wearing Heels said...

I love visiting your blog I always feel smarter when I do. This recipe looks simply delicious.

andi filante said...

I love making my own sauce! But I usually peel the tomatoes first, which is such a pain. You don't have any issues leaving the skin on? I hate getting stuff out of a can. :/

-andi