Real Tomato Sauce

We all know about the decline of the poor store tomato.
How it is picked not ripe, gassed, transported many miles and sits on the grocery bin, priced high
for a lousy taste or no taste at all. The "vine-ripened" tomato being sold, isn't any better, its just
priced higher.
This unfresh taste-less flavor is also true for the store bought tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and/or
marinara sauce.
Real tomato sauce is a competely different "animal" than what is sold in stores.
Trust me, you'll never serve that store stuff to your best friends ever again.

Everyone should experience making a good tomato sauce using fresh just-picked
sun-ripened tomatoes.

Tomato Sauce

Olive oil
onion, diced
garlic, diced
cucumber (peeled and deseeded) and/or carrot, diced or grated
6 tomatoes, peeled
fresh herbs, oregano and basil, chopped fine



Wash and peel tomatoes and slice into sauce pan. (I use a crock pot) (no sauce sticking and you don't have to pay any attention to the sauce while it cooks)     Add all ingredients to pot.
Simmer for about an hour or until the sauce begins to thicken and the vegetables are soft.
The sauce can be pureed with a food mill, if a smooth texture is preferred.
Taste and correct seasoning with salt or pepper or a pinch of sugar.

This sauce taste nothing like the store bought variety, just as the home-grown tomato,
honestly ripened on the vine by the heat of the summer sun, will probably never be
like the variety sold in stores.


Fresh Tomato Sauce
on ravioli

Brandywine tomatoes
are the best

  

Risotto (cheat & eat)

Another rice dish, but this one is Italian and I cheat making the dish.

Traditional Italian risotto requires being immovable at the stove by standing and stirring
continuously for 30 minutes.
This I find hard to do. So this recipe requires standing and stirring for only 5 minutes.

There are so many things you can do with risotto. It can be a main dish or a side dish
or eaten at any meal. It can be made with almost any ingredient added to the rice:
fish, livers, meat, sausage, vegetables, herbs, nuts, cheese and any flavor of broth.

I found a very good rice grown in the USA.   Botan calrose rice.
It costs more, but what a difference than the rice found in the clear plastic bags.

Risotto from the oven with sausage and peppers


1 Tbsp olive oil
sausage  (cut into cubes)
peppers, red, green, hot or sweet, chopped
onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Herbs for seasoning
1 cup Botan rice
2 cups liquid, combo of wine, broth or water
tomatoes added after cooking

Heat the oil into a pot that is oven proof (cast-iron oven pot). Turn oven to 350 F.
Saute the garlic, peppers, onion and sausage. Add the rice and fry and stir for about
5 minutes. Add the liquids and the herbs and put pot into the oven covered.  Bake until all
the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add a few tomatoes (canned or fresh or tomato paste)
Serve with an Arugula salad.

Others Risotto ideas:

risotto with parmesan cheese and fresh basil
risotto with wild mushrooms
risotto with asparagus
risotto with clams