Saucey

Before we left for Pennsylvania last week we picked a couple of tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden to give to Bruce's mom.  She was extremely grateful and made a comment about possibly using them (with some tomatoes she had from a family member's garden) to make some sauce.  Bruce told her that I had been wanting to learn how to make sauce so we all did it together one night.  It sounds lame, but it really was a lot of fun!

This post is more of a cooking method than a recipe (as I try it on my own and fine-tune the spices and quantities I will do a recipe post).

This was the first time I've tried this and it really was easier than I thought it would be.  We ended up canning the sauce, but I don't really have the details on that process and don't want to misinform you on canning (because it is a careful process).  Julie cans all the time so refer to her blog if you have questions!

We started by rinsing and slicing the tomatoes.  A lot of the tomatoes were a little too ripe for eating in salads - but it's perfect for sauce.  We cut off the bad stuff and threw them in the pot!

With some onion for extra flavor.

Everything went on the stove on medium heat and we seasons with salt, pepper, garlic and oregano (and I'm sure some others that are escaping me at the moment).  We let everything "cook down" - or soften into a sauce-like texture.

Then we used a fancy shmancy toy to strain the sauce through and leave the skins and seeds behind.  Bruce's mom strains everything through twice, which helps get a lot of the "meat" into the sauce.

Then it went back on the stove on low with some more seasoning.  Barb keeps her sauce on for a few hours at this point - some people keep it on all day!  It's a method choice - I'm not sure one is right or wrong.

We took one of the jars home with us (it's cooking with meatballs now!) but I honestly cannot wait to try this out for myself.  I love the idea of cooking from scratch whenever possible and did not realize how easy sauce was to make (I mean, it's so easy to buy).  We've got tons of red tomatoes at the moment and I definitely plan on making some sauce to stock up on.

Does anyone else make their own tomato or spaghetti sauce?  Any tips?  Recipes?