Topic: In The Kitchen
An over-abundance of tomatoes in the garden, all ripening at once, led me to the decision to try making some pasta sauce of them.
The tomatoes I had to work with were heirlooms with an orangy coloring so the sauce is not a dark red as expected. I cruised the web to read up on the process and recommended ingredients. Then I just went off on my own and made it up as I went along.
I started by cutting the tomatoes into chunks - these were HUGE fruits, up to 6 inches across! The chunks were placed in a big stockpot and some white wine added. I also added oregano and thyme, some salt and pepper.
While this cooked down on low heat I put two cut onions and some garlic into the oven wrapped in foil. I roasted these until they were tender and then tossed them in the pot with the tomatoes.
I used a potato masher to break up the tomatoes and continued cooking. When everything was pretty 'loose' I scooped some into a collander and pressed the pulp through. This left behind the tomato skins which were then discarded. All the juice and pulp was run through the food processor to puree it and then returned to the stock pot.
At this point I added more spices, some garlic powder and some chicken boullion powder. A little paprika helped add red color to the sauce.
This was then allowed to simmer for a couple of hours until reduced to about 1/3 of the original volume.
The result was 5 pints of pasta sauce which I packaged for the freezer.
This will make a tasty winter treat over spaghetti - perhaps with a little ground beef added in.
Ddd
