good 'n planty

Every now and then I have been enjoying a sliced tomato sandwich, but mostly I hoard my harvested tomatoes* in a bowl until I have enough to make a batch of marinara sauce to freeze. I go through an insane amount of crushed tomatoes in the winter, making a batch of marinara or chili once or twice a week. So I'm hoping to have a tidy little stockpile of homemade sauce ready to go when the weather turns cold.

This is my favorite recipe, also from the Roseto cookbook.

Marinara Sauce

3 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Small onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 ripe tomatoes, peeled and cooked for 5 minutes. Or a 2 lb. can plum tomatoes.

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

6 leaves fresh basil

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oil in a heavy pot. Saute the onion until browned, then add garlic and brown.

I usually drain some of the liquid from the tomatoes after peeling and pulse in the food processor to break up most of the chunks.

Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

This makes enough sauce for 1 pound of pasta.

* Also, I plan to spend a chunk of my 3 day weekend making tomato powder with the tomatoes too small to make into sauce. You can find the recipe here and see pictures of the tomato drying process here.

Update on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 10:07AM by Abby

I did follow through with the tomato powder- but when my "slow-roasting" tomatoes were still juicy after cooking 3 hours, I lowered the oven temperature and went to bed- when I checked them in the morning they were black. As my friend said- my sun-dried tomatoes got sun-burnt.