Easy Pasta Sauce

Here's a bit of a step-by-step process for making pasta sauce. It is EASY I tell you and good for you. There are a million recipes out there, but don't be intimidated. Pasta sauce can be as simple as it is good.
I have the blessing this year of having a tomato crop. So many people have lost theirs to hale and for some this odd summer weather has kept them green on the vine for ages. This sauce was made from the San Marzano tomato. If you can get your hands on a San Marzano, get one. Try to get one next season. They are heirloom and should be sacred! Switch these out for your Romas, I guarantee you won't be dissappointed. You can get organic seeds here, or if you are lucky enough to know a good organic gardener that starts tomatoes in the spring, you might could wrangle a plant or two from them. I'll never grow Roma again. These put out so much more fruit despite the weird weather while my Roma performed poorly, giving me one half-rotted fruit. Here is a picture of the pretty San Marzanos (next to a few Ark. Travellers) The fruit is probably bigger than it looks. I have a huge sink. They are the small, longer, shapely kind with the glossy skin.


After washing them and removing the stems, I boiled some water in a good sized pot for blanching. This process is necessary to remove the skin. Skinless sauce is better, I promise. It's worth the effort.

You just drop them into the boiling water, 10-20 seconds should do you. Take them out and set them aside in a bowl to cool. After a while they should look like this. Ready to de-skin!

Remove the skin. With these excellent tomatoes, there is no need to remove the seeds. Each fruit only holds a few and that's not enough to bother much. For seedy tomatoes you may want to run them through a sieve. You also should pinch off the little part that the stem was attached to. This will help break up the tomato as well.

Mash up the skinned tomatoes really well, or run them through a food processor if you prefer (I don't, I like chunky).

Dump the cooled water from your big pot out into a houseplant or the yard, and bring it back to the kitchen to use again.

Add 3-4 tbsp. of olive oil.
Chop up an onion and a clove or two of garlic and cook it a bit in the pan, until it smells nice and the onion is clear.
Then pour in the sauce.

Add just a bit of sugar, about two tablespoons, to taste.

A tablespoon of salt.

A tablespoon (or more, to taste) of the Italian seasoning of your choice, or any chopped fresh herbs you have.
I added two young zucchinis and 4 large mushrooms that needed cooking. You could change it up and add different things if you want, spinach, olives, carrots, even sausage or cheese.

I added just a bit of water, about half a cup.
I brought it to a boil, then left it to simmer for the better part of two hours. The longer it simmers the thicker and more concentrated the sauce gets.

When I was done, I prepared two canning jars by boiling them.

While the sauce and the jar (and lid!) was still very hot, I poured in the sauce, (leaving about 1/2 inch space up top) wiped the lip carefully and put the lid on quick, twisting down the ring tight.

The jar sealed within a few minutes, no water bath or anything.
*This should only be done with things like tomatoes that are highly acidic and do not have the risk of harboring dangerous bacteria.

Should you not have some left that doesn't quite fill a jar, just put the jar in the fridge and use it up within a few days.
Voila! Your own homemade pasta sauce, no frills, easy as pie. It's a good starter. Try this and you will quickly find yourself coming up with your own yummy sauce recipe.

Pico from our garden.

Pico is so easy to make and so full of goodies, it is really the greatest dip I think you can make. Plus it is so versatile. You can put it on tacos, breakfast burritos, beans, soup, rice, meats, salads, anything that you want to add tangy spice to. Due to my taste preferences (and my dosha) astringent foods are my very favorites.
I've posted the recipe before, but basically it is this.
Tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime with a dash of salt.
In this pico I put two heirloom Arkansas Traveller tomatoes, they have excellent flavor and a pink skin, which was their downfall in mainstream marketing. They were developed in the 70's to be disease resistant and flavorful, but they were pink. Your average shopper doesn't want a pink tomato, so it became the relic that it is today.
I used golden pear tomatoes, green onions, sweet yellow onions, an ancho pepper, a green chili and two Jalapenos and cilantro. Everything but the cilantro and the lime (okay, and a bit of salt) came from our garden. I have to admit that I ate most of it myself in my taco, with chips and over rice.

Birdhouse Gourds

I've got about seven 5-7lb birdhouse gourds! I have beenpicking off most of the babies and watering it regularly. These babies are huge! It is no wonder the vines are so grabby. Such a weight to hold. These are going to make really gorgeous birdhouses!

Bike Ride to Downtown

I joined Alecia and David today for their bike ride. They ride together a lot. The other day they went 24 miles!! So I was curious to find out just how much fun they had. Zana had a sleepover, so Monday morning David, Alecia and I all packed up and took off downtown on our bikes. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work! I can't believe Alecia can do all that herself! I had to stop and take a break!
I got some pictures of our ride. Here is the Platte River near Confluence Park.

David and Alecia at the Confluence entrance on the west side of downtown Denver.

A sculpture I had not seen. Appears to be a big stack of water balloons? Strangely interesting.