People prepare two basic kinds of tomato sauce. Basically, they are the smooth type that is typically labeled tomato sauce, and the chunky type, which may be labeled diced tomatoes in juice or chunky tomato sauce. Both involve the process of preparing smooth tomato sauce, and then possibly augmenting it with diced tomatoes.
To accomplish this, you start with fresh tomatoes. I made my recent batch with tomatoes on the vine, which you will spot easily in any Tucson supermarket. The ones I got were clearly labeled organic on the stickers that were attached to each one.
Before you begin making the ultra-important tomato sauce (because America eats so much of it), we need to assess our equipment needs. I always remove the skins and seeds when using fresh tomatoes (even for small tomatoes I remove the seeds, at least). To do that, you do not—repeat do not—use a tool such as a paring knife or peeler. What you do is immerse the tomato in boiling water for ten seconds, and the skins slip off like gloves (and it also works for peaches).
So we need a large pot for the boiling water. You could immerse the tomatoes in the boiling water with tongs, but I have a stainless-steel soup pot with an insert that is perforated to allow pasta or soup ingredients to be removed and drained. You see this kind of pot every day on cooking programs.
You also need two bowls to hold the tomatoes as they are prepared and moved from the one bowl to the second. Finally, you need a food processor, blender or food mill to process the prepared tomatoes into tomato sauce.
If you use a blender or food processor, you can adjust processing time to make sauce that is more or less chunky, depending on your taste. If you use a food mill, you will get a very smooth sauce that can be the base for your addition of actual pieces of diced tomato.
Once the sauce is prepared, you proceed with it exactly as you would with canned tomato products. I still buy (organic) tomato paste, but more often I just let the sauce cook down for a few hours to thicken it for pasta after all the ingredients are added.
So here is the procedure for making tomato sauce: set the large pot to boil with four to six inches of water in it.
Start with your (I bought fourteen) organic tomatoes on the vine, take them home and “pick” them from the vine to the sink and wash them. Then take each one and cut a cross on the bottom end with a sharp knife (I mean a really sharp knife). When they are all ready, place them in the boiling water for about ten seconds. Remove them immediately to your first work bowl.
At that point you will find that the tomatoes haven’t really been heated by their exposure to the boiling water. However, be aware that the gel inside them, where the seeds are placed, will be warmer than the actual tomato. Slip the skins off the tomatoes one by one and place them into the second bowl.
After the tomatoes are skinned, cut them crosswise one by one and remove the seeds and gel. The easiest way to do this is with your fingers. When the seeds are gone, cut the tomato halves into rough pieces and place them into the other bowl (be sure to cut out the tough stem end). They are ready for processing into sauce when all the tomatoes are skinned, seeded and chopped. This is the longest part of the procedure.
By the way, if you are using a food mill, do not attempt to run raw tomatoes through it with the skin on, in the belief that you’d rather avoid the cooking. Tomato skin will not respond to the gentle rasp of the food mill, and those tomato pieces will just go merrily around in the food mill all night.
You may need to put your prepared tomatoes through processing by small batches, which is all right and will not take much time. As the sauce comes out of the food mill or processor, it goes into the bowl that is now empty until you put them into storage containers.
Before freezing or refrigerating, you may have decided to make diced-tomato sauce. In that case, reserve some of the skinned and seeded tomatoes for chopping and adding to the finished sauce.
I do not try to make tomato sauce from raw tomatoes because as far as I know, studies indicate that cooking does not diminish the potency of the healthful component of tomatoes, which is called lycopene. Besides, tomato sauce is typically cooked for a long time before eating anyway, as in spaghetti sauce, soup, stew or other Italian dishes like lasagna.
One more thing to do with your brand-new tomato sauce is freeze it into little ice cubes, which can be added to soup or stew to enrich it. That will bring us to a lovely meal of soup, homemade bread and possibly a side salad with a dressing that you have prepared organically. And if you have one special favorite salad dressing, I can tell you that organic versions of almost every salad dressing are readily available all over Tucson, particularly at the health-oriented stores like Sunflower Market and Whole Foods. Paul Newman’s food company, Newman’s Own, is not only oriented towards organic ingredients, but the profits from sales of this brand are entirely donated to charity. There is also Annie’s Naturals, which makes a good French dressing that I would buy if I had run out of the one that I make myself.
So now that you have your superb organic tomato sauce, let’s put it into a wonderful soup. You can’t go wrong if you make this:
TOMATO BARLEY SOUP
Ingredients:
1 pound organic ground beef or veal (you could use a meat substitute for a vegetarian soup)
1 rib of organic celery, diced
1 small organic onion, diced
1 small organic shallot, diced (you could substitute 1 clove of garlic if you don’t have shallots around)
12 ounces homemade organic tomato sauce
1 cup diced organic tomatoes (or the equivalent of chunky organic tomato sauce)
2 cups organic beef or vegetable broth
1/3 cup organic barley
1 cup organic frozen mixed vegetables (such as Cascadian Farms)
Seasoning herbs, salt and pepper
Break up the ground beef with the diced celery, onion and garlic and heat in your soup pot with a little vegetable oil until the meat is cooked. The onions will become translucent. For a low-fat version you could drain out the meat fat and oil at this point.
Add the liquids and tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. Add the vegetables and barley. Simmer for 30-45 minutes until the barley is thoroughly cooked and softened. Add the seasonings last.
You could use any herb combination that you like, dried or fresh, but taste as you add. Remember that the flavors of herbs will grow as they absorb liquid. This beef-tomato combination goes well with Italian seasoning, basil, bay leaf and black pepper.
An amazing side dish for this soup is a whole head of garlic, unpeeled, with the top cut off. Place it in a small covered dish (there are garlic bakers especially made for this) and bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until you can squeeze the soft cloves right out of the peel and spread them on your buttered homemade artisan bread. It is a very effective conversation starter if you have a guest for dinner.
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