Back to School Sauce!

For so many moms around my town, I’m hearing a common refrain. I’m confident to bet that it’s a national one! It goes something like this: “I’m ready for summer to end!” “Thank God school is starting!” “This is the summer that never ends!”

But hold on ladies. . .is that what you really want? Instead of lazy mornings (yes, I know it can be outright frustrating when your teen is sleeping in past noon day after day) but do you really want to hear that shrill noise from the alarm clock which signals it’s time to start the spin cycle? Well, whatever mood you’re in “melancholy that those sandy barefoot days are over or ecstatic that you’re going have those rascals out of the house“it’s back to school! Time to shop, do homework, make breakfasts, lunch and dinner over and over again! That’s right. . . no more excuses to order in pizza or Chinese every day. The official summer is over!

And though the farm fresh season still has quite a number of weeks before we need to grieve for those days long gone, cooking shifts from preserving whats farm fresh to cooking for survival! Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it’s kind of true.

So with this first day of school, get yourself organized in the kitchen and get cooking (and freezing) a few solid basics to be used in lunch boxes, after school snacks or even a quick light on-the-go meal. And make sure to invite a friend to do the cooking with you! You can enjoy an end-of-summer wrap up conversation while your sauce simmers! Since I’m not ready to let go of summer entirely, today’s recipe is Farm Fresh Back to School Tomato Sauce. If you can convince your local farm stand to sell you second hand or slightly bruised tomatoes, you’ll come out way ahead on price. I buy mine for $1.99 a basket which each comes with about 8 tomatoes.

Farm Fresh Tomato Sauce

Print Recipe

Servings	Prep Time
6 people	20 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings Prep Time 6 people 20 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours

Farm Fresh Tomato Sauce Print Recipe Servings Prep Time 6 people 20 minutes Cook Time 2 hours Servings Prep Time 6 people 20 minutes Cook Time 2 hours

Ingredients

• 5-8 pounds tomatoes overripe, farm fresh
• 1/4 cup olive oil extra virgin, good quality
• 1 head fresh garlic 10 cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp sea salt good quality
• 1 bunch basil washed, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes optional (if you want it spicy)

Servings: people

Instructions

1. 1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 2) Using a knife, score each tomato with a small x. 3) Drop tomatoes “about 6 at a time “into the water to loosen the skin. Keep in the water for about 3-4 minutes. Remove, cool and repeat the process. 4) Once cooled, use your hands to remove the seeds and skin from the tomato placing seeds and skins in one bowl and flesh in another. Squish the fleshy part of the tomatoes with your hands to break up the tomatoes. Once finished, begin to make sauce. (And if you have a tomato press, place the seeds and skins through to get more sauce. Sometimes you can press through a sieve as well.) 5) Heat a large open and deep skillet with 1/4 cup olive oil. 6) Add the chopped garlic and cook for a minute or two over medium high heat before adding the tomatoes. 7) Add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and basil. 8) Bring to a rapid boil on a high heat and cook for about ten minutes. 9) Turn heat down and cook uncovered for about 90 minutes to two hours on a medium high heat until sauce thickens. Add the fresh basil at the end of the cooking time. 10) Cool and then package in airtight containers and freeze until ready to use!