Quick Tomato Sauce

It is that wonderful time of year again.  The time when everyone’s tomato plants are overloaded with beautiful, firm, red fruit just waiting to be harvested and turned into sauce.  If you are blessed with a garden of your own, you will find, like me, that you harvest enough tomatoes each week to make about 1 jar of sauce.  That is, enough tomatoes that you need to cook them into….something, but not so many to justify pulling out all of the canning equipment.  I know, its a delicious and wonderful problem to have.

For years I used to buy a bushel or so of tomatoes from the marked and spend all weekend skinning, seeding, cooking and canning.  Instead, the last few years I have taken the relaxed approach.  I make one batch of this recipe every weekend, and freeze whatever amounts I don’t use.

This recipe is quick!  You still unfortunately have to skin and seed the tomatoes, but that is the only tedious aspect of this dish.  It can also be doubled, tripled, quadrupled if you’d like, to accommodate any number of tomatoes (in case your garden is more plentiful than mine!).  Think of it more like a guideline than an actual recipe.  The result is fresh, uncomplicated, delicious tomato sauce.

For those who have never peeled and seeded tomatoes before: bring a medium sized pot of water to boil.  Prepare a large bowl with ice and water and keep it on hand.  Cut an “X” on the bottom of each plum tomato with a paring knife and place 4-5 tomatoes in the boiling water pot.  When the skin of the tomato appears to shrivel, or you can see it starting to peel and separate from the tomato, remove it from the boiling water and place it in the ice bath.  Repeat with the remaining tomatoes.

Once cooled, proceed to peel the skin from the tomatoes.  Cut each tomato in half and remove the core and seeds with your hands.

Or, if you do not have a surplus of tomatoes but want to make this sauce anyways, feel free to substitute with a can of whole tomatoes!

Tomato Sauce with Oil and Garlic
Adapted from Fabio’s Italian Kitchen

6 cloves of garlic, smashed
8 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like it!)
10-12 whole plum or San Marzano tomatoes, peeled and seeded (Or 1 28-oz can of whole plum tomatoes)
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil leaves, ribboned

Place the garlic, red pepper flakes, and 5 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the garlic is golden brown.  Add the tomatoes and generous pinches of salt and pepper.  Cook over medium-high heat until the sauce is thick and no longer watery, about 10-15 minutes.  Add the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil and turn the heat to high.  Sit, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon.  Cook until the oil turns red, then turn off the heat and add the basil at the very end.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.