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This past summer was crazy. I started a new life in Tennessee, moved my farm, opened a shop while continuing to homeschool and trying hard not to disrupt life for the kiddos as much as possible. Maintaining our normal lifestyle meant I still baked bread, made all of our dairy products, fixed three meals from scratch every day and tried to make a few of those meals somewhat gourmet, among other things.When life comes at you that fast something has to give and for me it was canning. So, without the least bit of guilt I just packed up the produce from the garden into Ziploc bags and threw them into the freezer without any further ado.
Well, here we are now and things are slowing down a bit and we are getting ready to enter a long fast period with our church which means plenty of pasta and here I am without a can of tomato sauce in the house. Never fear, I thought, the garden is in the freezer! So here is my recipe for a delicious pasta sauce, fresh from the freezer.
This recipe is not for the faint at heart. There is no measuring or timing but this will help you to learn to cook from the hip.
I took several bags of frozen tomatoes, maybe 5 or 6 quarts and a quart of frozen green and red peppers. As you can tell from the photo I grew and froze several different types of tomatoes which gives the sauce a very rich flavor. To this mixture I added two very large onions, chopped, along with 1 head of garlic, minced, one bottle of wine (Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck), oregano, basil and thyme, and a good amount of Celtic Sea Salt.I let this thaw slightly and put it on the stove for several hours to cook down. Keep tasting the sauce and adjust spices as needed. Trust yourself. Once you are happy with the results use a hand blender to mix it all up and blend in the skins. Once smooth, eat, can or freeze.
Voila! Thanks to the freezer you can eat fresh from the garden all year 'round.
Excellent! I have wanted for a long time to learn to make my own sauce... this looks wonderful. I love the "Trust yourself" comment, also. Not always as easy as it sounds. :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks wonderful! Great idea.
ReplyDeleteJeanette you would be surprised at how quickly you can learn to "trust yourself" when it comes to cooking. I think it is just a confidence you gain when you try new things. Today Alyssa made hummus as I just grabbed things from the fridge. We threw things into the Cuisinart, tasted, adjusted, and "voila" perfect, smooth hummus.
ReplyDeleteThe tomato sauce is so much easier because it cooks for so long and it's easy to adjust seasonings etc. Have fun!!
I just found your blog and cannot wait to dig through all these fantastic posts!! I gave away too many tomatoes last year to neighbors because with two small children, I never got around to canning! I didn't realize you can freeze them!! This will be great as I've spent a fortune this winter buying canned tomatoes:)
ReplyDeletethanks!
Hi Vanessa,
ReplyDeletesorry I didn't see your post sooner. Let me know how it goes this year. Just keep a good supply of freezer bags and use just as much time as you have to prepare them for freezing. If I have some time I will cut the tomatoes in half and lay them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and lay some herbs on top. They go into the oven at about 350 until well roasted. These take up much less room and they taste amazing. When things are hectic though, its wash and bag.