I just happened to have bought 25 lbs (11 kg) of fresh Roma tomatoes two days ago with plans of making a big-ish batch of tomato sauce. Half way through the sauce making I saw the Italian Steemit #FoodChallenge so I thought I'd share my favourite recipe for a rich, versatile tomato sauce.

I started with 25 lbs of fresh, ripe plum/roma or similar fleshy tomatoes. Mine were $6 for 25 lbs, from an Ontario farm. Fresh tomatoes are usually $1-3/lb any other time of year here, so this is quite special time of year around here.

This box was full when I started, started taking photos when I noticed the challenge :)

Ingredients:

• 5 to 100 lbs of fleshy roma or plum tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic per lb of tomatoes
• fresh parsley or basil to taste
• olive or vegetable oil
• salt to taste

Method

• Start by heating oil in a thick bottomed pot to medium.

• Peel garlic, leaving whole add to the oil. Cook on medium until fragrant but not browned.

• Add tomatoes whole, turn heat to medium low. Cook uncovered for 4-5 hours. Letting the tomatoes cook whole prevents burning . There is a lot of water to be cooked off, so using whole tomatoes gives you a bit more freedom to walk away from the stove without worrying. The excess unwanted water will come out of the tomatoes as they shrink, when almost all water is evaporated, remove from heat.

• When cooled, I squeeze off the peels as best I can. A lot of people use a food mill for this step, but I don't have one. This only took me 5 minutes by hand, not a big deal.

• I like a bit of a chunky sauce, so I mash the tomato pulp with a potato masher. I don't mind the odd garlic chunk remaining in tact either. A food mill or food processor will give a smoother sauce.

• Add diced herbs and salt to taste at this point. If you wish to hot-fill cans of sauce, make sure to bring back to a boil for 10 minutes after adding herbs. Hot fill into sterilized bottles if that is your way of storing. If you wish to freeze or serve the sauce, you can keep the herbs a bit fresher tasting by cooking less.

Enjoy with pastas, pizza, pizza toast, pizza bagels and all the other pizza-food group.

Next week - 25 lbs of pickling cucumbers coming my way!