Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Hitting the Sauce, Freestyle

I've had a bumper crop of tomatoes in the past couple of weeks, so I've been drying, canning and freezing like it's my job.  I'm thrilled because, for a few years, I've had some terrible tomato disease that has ruined plant after plant.  Some have produced tomatoes but I never trust that I should can them in case there's some disease hidden in there.

I have serious trust issues when it comes to canning.

This summer, I've had trouble keeping up with the ripe tomatoes, waiting until there's enough to can and then I've remembered I could use them on the spot.  Duh.

After the first day of school, even though it was a really harrowing day for me due to heat and a headache bigger than Montana,  I determined I had everything to make a sauce.  If I just added some meat, I'd have supper.
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So, I cut up a bunch of tomatoes, onions, a zucchini so I could use it up, and a couple of peppers.  I didn't worry too much about the size of the chunks because they were all going in to roast and then I'd puree them.

I also put in some garlic which I did not grow.

This is all very blase,  no measurements.  Remember, I had a big headache and it was hot there were no specifics.  The fact that I was upright and making a plan for supper was all that was necessary.

I poured a little oil over it all and forgot to add salt.   This is a really big deal.  You need to add salt or it will be so bland you might cry.

Not that I cried.

While that was roasting at about 415 degrees in the oven, I went out and picked some basil and washed it so it could be dry when the sauce was done.

After about 15 minutes, I stirred it all around.


And then I kind of forgot about it until I started smelling a little of the juice burning.

Ooops.

I'd say it was all about 45 minutes or so.  The zucchini seems to take the longest to soften.


I took it out and used my immersion blender to smooth it.  I added some basil, which I didn't really chop up.  I just kind of tore the leaves off so I think they were mostly whole.

I cooked some ground turkey since I don't eat hamburger and served it with pasta.  And no salt.  And that was a bad idea, so again, I recommend adding some salt, somewhere in the process.  Not a lot, but just a little something.

I had a little left over which I reheated a couple of days later and added salt.  It was fantastic.

My other big caution is that it all cooks down to not so much sauce.  I used a pretty big pan and it was full, but when it was all pureed, it only really made enough for 2.  You'd need to use a lot more if you were feeding the masses.

Linking here:
http://olives-n-okra.com/merry-monday-70/
http://www.thesitsgirls.com
http://www.myturnforus.com/2015/09/freedom-fridays-with-all-my-bloggy_10.html 
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/09/clever-chicks-blog-hop-156-with-chicken.html



 

1 comment:

  1. Anything made with fresh tomatoes and basil has to be fantastic! Thanks for sharing with us at Merry Monday.

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