Homemade Tomato Sauce

What makes every dish better? Besides goat cheese. And sugar. Tomato sauce, that's what. Especially if it is homemade. This gets used year-round, and we'd be lost without it. How else would we make chili, spaghetti, vegetable soup, stuffed peppers and anything else that requires a red sauce. The store bought just can't measure up.

This is my great grandmother's secret recipe, passed down through the generations to my mom, and now me. Okay, so it's actually really simple but it does take considerable time and effort to turn out this amazing sauce.You'll need a Victoria Strainer, which works by mashing the tomatoes and pushing the tomatoes through a sieve.

For some reason, it also tastes better knowing that the tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs that go into this sauce all came from your very own garden. That's pride, and in the winter, it reminds you that summer will be here eventually.

Ingredients:
1/2 bushel tomatoes
2-3 chopped onions and peppers
1/2 tsp. red pepper
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
2 cans of tomato paste (15 oz.)

Directions:

First, soak your tomatoes in a clean sink full of cold water.

beautiful, huge tomatoes

 Next, halve or quarter the tomatoes until they are about 2 inch chunks. Then put into a Victoria Strainer, basically a very convenient tool that mashes the tomato through a sieve, separating the juice from the rest of the tomato a lot faster than I could do it.

Then mash all the tomatoes through the strainer. This takes a lot of muscle, so it's best to work in shifts. The strainer will separate the tomato juice from the seeds, skin and other waste. 

lots of cranking goes into this sauce. Secret ingredient: muscle

hello, juice.

Next, pour the tomato juice into your biggest pot. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. After an hour, add the chopped up onion, various peppers and red pepper spice to the pot and simmer for another hour.

Then add in the rest of the ingredients: the oil, basil, oregano, salt, garlic salt and sugar. Simmer for another hour, then add two 15 oz. cans of tomato paste. Cool and freeze.