Fresh tomato sauce

As summer wanes, I picked the last and first of my San Marzano tomatoes. the upside-down tomato planter that looked so promising has proved to be a dud. I think part of the problem is that when you water tomato plants upside down a lot of water drips down on the plant, which promotes fungus. So I ended up with just a small basket-full of tomatoes. Exactly enough for one batch of tomato sauce.

I've been working hard to eat my garden bounty as it ripens. I've been eating tons of cucumber/tomato/basil salads and the squash I grew was delicious prepared simply. Sliced and fried in olive oil along with thickly sliced onions. This tomato sauce came wonderfully. All of the ingredients were either grown by me or bought at the farmers market.

The Farmer & the Cook booth at the Ojai farmers market had some wonderful looking cipolline onions. I still have some garlic left that I grew, along with basil and oregano from my garden.

>Fresh tomato sauce

About 20 San Marzano tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons olive oil1 cipolline onion diced
3 to 4 cloves of garlic finely minced
1/4 cup fresh oregano coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 cup red wine
1-2 cups water

Peel the tomatoes by cutting and x in the end and plunging into a pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove from boiling water and plunge into cold water. The skins will come right off. Squeeze each tomato by hand to squeeze out excess seeds and liquids. You don't have to be too rigorous in this, some seeds are fine. Heat olive oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and cook, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Add herbs, salt pepper and wine. Cook over low heat for at least two hours, keeping a close eye on the sauce, stirring and adding water as the sauce reduces and thickens.
I added my lo-carb meatballs (See March 15 post) and cooked the sauce an additional half hour. I served it with spaghetti and Parmesan cheese.