It's That Time of Year Again...Fresh Tomato Sauce, Anyone?

Cook like an Italian, speak like an American.
Nothin' says Italy like extraordinary tomatoes.

As August winds down and we welcome in a new season next month, I have to say there are so many things about the summer I will miss terribly...long dresses, big sunglasses, drives to the beach, the time off...and the eating. What a generous season summer is, eh? Blackberries and raspberries and peaches and apricots...not to mention the tomatoes (the Italian ones are world famous for a reason.)

So yesterday my tuttofare (does-it-all) husband did what I would guess many Italians are doing around this time--he made a canned tomato sauce for the rest of the year.  The American in me used to wonder why we don't just buy it from the store during the months when tomatoes aren't available.  I'm happily Italianized in this area and others now.

Enjoy! And let us know if you make some of your own!

You'll need a big tub/container filled with water.
Soak 30-40 or however many tomatoes you want in cool water for a couple of hours.

boil some jar lids to sterilize them

and some empty recycled jars as well

bring water to a boil in a huge pot

throw some basil leaves in with your soaking tomatoes

then transfer tomatoes into boiling water

remove lids

and jars from hot water

boil tomatoes until they start to split--like this

then manually remove all of the seeds

puree with a hand mixer

repeat steps until you've pureed all of the tomatoes

then ladle the tomato sauce into your jars and add a couple of basil leaves

yum.

VERY important step here--
tighten lids on and then put the jars back into a large pot
fill the pot with cold water and weave a kitchen towel in between the jars
 (so they don't rattle against each other once water is boiling)
Place the lid on the top and bring water to a boil
Jars should boil for at least 40 minutes to an hour

Finally, remove the jars from the hot water and let them cool to room temperature.

Flavi saved a bit of sauce for yesterday's lunch

Mmmmm...che buono!