Tomato Pasta Sauce

Tomato Pasta Sauce

Posted by Cris

We love our fresh tomatos all summer, but then they all come at once so we blanch them (quick 10 secs in boiling water), peel the skins and core them and freeze them in bulk.

And then hunting season comes and I start cooking. Only this year Jon didn't go up nort' so he helped!

Ingredients

Tomatoes

Zucchini (or squash)

Onions 

Garlic

Basil

Salt and Pepper

I would love to give you exact amounts and all so you could replicate this, but that's not how I cook.  I had 4 big gallon ziploc bags of tomatoes, 6 cups of zucchini (measured pre-frozen) and 1 onion and LOTS of garlic  (10-14 cloves) basil and salt and pepper are to taste. 

Here are the steps - defrost (it took a good 24 hours for those tomatoes)

Chop and Saute the onion and garlic.

Enjoy the smells!   Put it all in the slow cooker to marinate. 

 Add the garlic and onions to the slow cooker. 

 Add BASIL (I love basil! check out pesto here!) I rescued this tiny plant from the garden and its now on my kitchen windowsill for fresh basil all year long.  I also have a lot of dried basil.  Both work great.  

  

 Zucchini is not the most common ingredient in tomato sauce, but we always have a lot of excess that I shred and freeze in 2 cup portions.  *Why 2 cups? It's the right amount for zucchini muffins. The reason I add it is to thicken the sauce and add some extra vitamins and vegetables - what the kids (and hubs) don't know won't hurt them.   

So when it thaws there is a LOT of excess water. Since we are trying to thicken the sauce that needs drained off.  I put all of it into a cheese cloth.   

Wrap it up and strain.  It's really easy.

Okay - so that goes into the slow cooker too.  Mix it all up. Let it cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4 hours.  Taste it throughout and add salt and pepper.  If it tastes bitter, you can add carrots (shredded or cooked/mashed) to sweeten things up.  I had to do this last year, but this year it was fabulous without. 

When all done cooking its still very chunky.  We like our tomato sauce well pureed - so we put it in a blender and puree away. 

You can certainly eat this right away or store in the fridge for a few weeks.  

We went ahead and added to jars and started the canning process! 

You need to leave a 1/2 inch of head space. 

Its a water bath process - which I think is easier than pressure cooking, but whatever. 

They have to stay in there for 35 minutes.

And when it was all done we have 12 jars of beautiful homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce. 

PS - Also amazing as PIZZA sauce. 

Garden Fresh Pesto

Posted by Cris

Basil may be the BEST thing ever!  I eat it fresh in LOTS of things all summer long.

 Garden tomatoes, eggs, with lemon in water, pasta of course, and
 whatever else I think might benefit from a little love. 

And what do you do come fall when you have a laundry basket full of basil "leftover" in the garden?

Pick the leaves off one by one (enlist help if you can!) 

I used a recipe from my wife's blog, http://hotmesscooking.blogspot.com/2011/08/garden-fresh-pesto.html

Abby is the one that taught me about pesto!  She is my wife - in that, years ago, back when I worked a crazy crisis intervention job, she worked with me.  We shared a cubicle, a pager, and lots of laughs.  I saw her more than my husband.  At some point, it made sense that we should marry, so we did! 

(More stories about her later!)

You need a food processor.  Start with garlic (5 cloves here)

Add 1 cup of walnuts.

Add 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.

Add the basil (about 4 cups).

I ended up with about 12 cups of basil total this year -and rounds 2 and 3 in the food processor taught me, Add the garlic and basil first, then weigh it down with the nuts and cheese. Lessons learned.

Hit the pulse or on button and let it chop everything up.  Then you start streaming in about 1/2 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil for those of you who are not Rachel Ray fans.)

You end up with PESTO!

 It's about the consistency of hummus, not too thick, not too runny. 

To Store the pesto and make it last year round, I spread mine into ice cube trays and freeze it.  

In a day or so, I'll pop the pesto cubes out and transfer to a ziploc bag. 

The great part is each pesto cube is the perfect serving amount for 1 person.  

Around this house, the only person that eats pesto is me.

 So yes, it is MINE, ALL MINE! 

(If you ask nicely, I might share, maybe)

By the time I was done, it was lunch time. So I made myself a grilled caprese sandwich with 2 slices of homemade artisan bread that Jon made, added my pesto, fresh mozzerella cheese, slices of fresh garden tomato, and put on the stove to grill.  

Gooey cheese, basil yumminess, sweet tomatoes! I savored EVERY little bite. 

I love our little backyard farm and all the delicious things I can make from it.

I would love to hear all of your ideas on what you do with pesto or basil.  Comment below!