Spaghetti sauce

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:22 pm

Tons of fresh tomatoes and the neighbors keep finding ways to get past the concertina wire and Dobermans to leave more. So:

Blanch tomatoes to get rid of skin, then cook them down to sauce

Add fresh basil from the garden

Add onion, fresh garlic, sea salt, ground pepper and a cup of red wine (I used Merlot because it was miraculously already open)

Cook it on the stove top for awhile and then press the whole mess through a colander if its too chunky. Pretty tasty concoction. MAking a batch with some sage too but I'm a little nervous about that one- I just have a lot of sage _I'm open to any ideas anyone has for using sage. Sauce can be frozn or canned or eaten on the spot. I did some of that.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:37 am

Quater the tomatoes (or if they're small enough half) place them cut side up in a jelly roll pan, sprinkle with sea salt and roast them in a 300 degree oven for ~30 minutes.

In the mean time, shred one carrots, dice an medium large sweet onion and toss that into a pan with olive oil. Saute til translucent then add sliced garlic. Once tomatoes come out of oven, pulse them in a food processor and add to onion mixture. Add crushed red pepper. Add salt, black pepper, salt, and herb mixture to taste. I like oregano and thyme.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:08 pm

I've never made sauce from fresh tomatoes. Couple questions:

What about varieties of tomatoes, does it matter? I've got some Romas, but probably not enough to make sauce solely of them...can I throw in some big meaty tomatoes as well?

What about seeds? They should be removed, shouldn't they? I'll definitely be blanching and removing skin from any of them, as well.

H2O: If you want to use sage, I'd recommend making breakfast sausage!

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:14 am

hammb wrote:I've never made sauce from fresh tomatoes. Couple questions:

What about varieties of tomatoes, does it matter? I've got some Romas, but probably not enough to make sauce solely of them...can I throw in some big meaty tomatoes as well?

What about seeds? They should be removed, shouldn't they? I'll definitely be blanching and removing skin from any of them, as well.

H2O: If you want to use sage, I'd recommend making breakfast sausage!

Seeds don't seem to matter and I put all kinds of tomatoes in the mix. Even used the little purple ones which were hardly worth the effort. My biggest problem was too much liquid-took awhile to simmer down to the right consistency.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:59 am

hammb wrote: What about varieties of tomatoes, does it matter? I've got some Romas, but probably not enough to make sauce solely of them...can I throw in some big meaty tomatoes as well?

Fleshy tomatoes such as Roma are preferred but if you don't mind scraping some of the gunk out, most tomatoes will work. H2O cited the primary reason: water content of the sauce.

There's also a debate of whether you want to remove the skin of the tomatoes. I'm for removed skins but only if I'm buying the canned variety. If they're fresh, the skins stay on ('cause I'm lazy.)

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:15 pm

My first attempt at this is in the crockpot right now. It will need to simmer awhile to reduce the water, as my tomatoes were pretty juicy. I basically followed RUIT's method, but I did peel & seed all the tomatoes. I was picking tomatoes in the downpour this morning, but the early returns are worthwhile.

Looks like I've got about 5-6 quarts of sauce right now...I may need to grab another onion and more garlic...we'll see how it tastes as it cooks some of that moisture off.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:49 am

hammb wrote:My first attempt at this is in the crockpot right now. It will need to simmer awhile to reduce the water, as my tomatoes were pretty juicy. I basically followed RUIT's method, but I did peel & seed all the tomatoes. I was picking tomatoes in the downpour this morning, but the early returns are worthwhile.

Looks like I've got about 5-6 quarts of sauce right now...I may need to grab another onion and more garlic...we'll see how it tastes as it cooks some of that moisture off.

Tomatoe paste works very well to thicken a sauce, but make sure to add a little more savory to counteract the sweetness of the paste.

Frank's Red Hot or any FLAVORFUL pepper sauce does very well with this.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 12:23 pm

I just cooked it until it was thick (about 10 hrs

). It's really, really good.

This morning I got up and made some fresh ravioli. That will be tonight's dinner after softball

MajorFalcon92 · Post by **MajorFalcon92** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:40 pm

Here is my process:

Turkey fryer to blanche, remove skins and use food strainer hooked up to an air compresser rachet drive to spin.

We have canned about 45qts of various tomato products on the driveway this summer.

Apples are up next.

The Niz · Post by **The Niz** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:06 pm

My grandmother, as many grandmothers do I'm sure, makes some of the greatest meals I've ever eaten. One of her best dishes is spaghetti sauce, or sause as she usually spells it

She prepares it with meat usually but it doesn't need it. I find that the meat greatly enhances it though. The beauty is how simple it is, brown some ground beef with diced garlic onion and red and green peppers. add blanched tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, your favorite herbs and spices, salt and pepper, and a crap ton of sugar.

If you've never added sugar to your sauce its time to try it, IMMEDIATELY!!

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 5:41 pm

The Niz wrote:My grandmother, as many grandmothers do I'm sure, makes some of the greatest meals I've ever eaten. One of her best dishes is spaghetti sauce, or sause as she usually spells it

She prepares it with meat usually but it doesn't need it. I find that the meat greatly enhances it though. The beauty is how simple it is, brown some ground beef with diced garlic onion and red and green peppers. add blanched tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, your favorite herbs and spices, salt and pepper, and a crap ton of sugar.

If you've never added sugar to your sauce its time to try it, IMMEDIATELY!!

Sorry man, sugar has absolutely no place in spaghetti sauce. If you like it, great, but it just doesn't belong, IMO.

factman · Post by **factman** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:32 pm

I think FIU mixed up a batch of this in a "glass bowl" last night!!

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 8:44 pm

hammb wrote:
The Niz wrote:My grandmother, as many grandmothers do I'm sure, makes some of the greatest meals I've ever eaten. One of her best dishes is spaghetti sauce, or sause as she usually spells it

She prepares it with meat usually but it doesn't need it. I find that the meat greatly enhances it though. The beauty is how simple it is, brown some ground beef with diced garlic onion and red and green peppers. add blanched tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, your favorite herbs and spices, salt and pepper, and a crap ton of sugar.

If you've never added sugar to your sauce its time to try it, IMMEDIATELY!!
Sorry man, sugar has absolutely no place in spaghetti sauce. If you like it, great, but it just doesn't belong, IMO.

It cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and it's added a LOT with "family recipes." I prefer other things which cut the acid (e.g. carrots or tomato paste.)

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:21 pm

Rightupinthere wrote:
hammb wrote:
The Niz wrote:My grandmother, as many grandmothers do I'm sure, makes some of the greatest meals I've ever eaten. One of her best dishes is spaghetti sauce, or sause as she usually spells it

She prepares it with meat usually but it doesn't need it. I find that the meat greatly enhances it though. The beauty is how simple it is, brown some ground beef with diced garlic onion and red and green peppers. add blanched tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, your favorite herbs and spices, salt and pepper, and a crap ton of sugar.

If you've never added sugar to your sauce its time to try it, IMMEDIATELY!!
Sorry man, sugar has absolutely no place in spaghetti sauce. If you like it, great, but it just doesn't belong, IMO.
It cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and it's added a LOT with "family recipes." I prefer other things which cut the acid (e.g. carrots or tomato paste.)

I like carrots as well. My mom always put sugar in it, and I didn't care for it as well.

MajorFalcon92 · Post by **MajorFalcon92** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:03 pm

hammb wrote:
The Niz wrote:My grandmother, as many grandmothers do I'm sure, makes some of the greatest meals I've ever eaten. One of her best dishes is spaghetti sauce, or sause as she usually spells it

She prepares it with meat usually but it doesn't need it. I find that the meat greatly enhances it though. The beauty is how simple it is, brown some ground beef with diced garlic onion and red and green peppers. add blanched tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, your favorite herbs and spices, salt and pepper, and a crap ton of sugar.

If you've never added sugar to your sauce its time to try it, IMMEDIATELY!!
Sorry man, sugar has absolutely no place in spaghetti sauce. If you like it, great, but it just doesn't belong, IMO.

I have added sugar before. Also dehydrated powdered zucchuni as well.

Sugar works well in homemade pizza sause, but depending on what you are looking for, can be ok spagetti sauce.