4 Ingredient Tomato Sauce

This tomato sauce recipe is so yummy~simple ingredients with fabulous results. You can make this using 3 pounds of tomatoes (as the recipe indicates), or more. Recently, I purchased 60 pounds of Roma tomatoes from McClendon’s Select, a local farm here in Phoenix. And I did experiment with ways to alter the recipe to make the project go a bit faster.

Please don’t think you need to know how to can or preserve to make this recipe. It certainly depends on the quantity of sauce you make, but you can certainly just refrigerate it if you are consuming it quickly, or freeze it.

My friend, Rick, who is a very good cook is responsible for this recipe. Like most recipes, I am always looking for a short-cut or a different way to tweak it to make it my own. Always start with good quality ingredients. Personally, I prefer to make sauce from my own tomatoes, but my crop this year wasn’t a good one. So it is time to find an alternative.

McClendon’s Select is family-run, certified organic farm located on 25 acres in Peoria, Arizona and an additional 68-acres in Goodyear, Arizona. How does one get 60 pounds of Roma tomatoes? Since this farm is always at our local farmers markets, you can order produce directly from them. All it took was an email asking the question. Since they do sell to restaurants, I am able to buy 20 lb. flats of tomatoes at $20.00 per flat. And as they do sell custom boxes of produce each week, I went to their drive through location and picked up the merchandise.

Here are the four ingredients: olive oil, garlic, Roma or plum tomatoes and salt. Making the sauce does involve cutting the tomatoes.

In Rick’s recipe, he suggests cutting the tomato in half, and then into a total of 16 pieces. Remove the core and seeds, saving the rest of the tomato. (Note: In order to eliminate this step, read the section on using a food mill).

Sauté the minced garlic in oil until fragrant (do not brown) and add the tomatoes and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer vigorously, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened slightly and tomato skins are starting to separate from the flesh, 15 to 20 minutes.

Rick’s recipe suggests using a food mill. Not everyone has a food mill and if you do not, here is an option. After cooking the tomatoes, put everything in a food processor. My Cuisinart pulvarizes the tomatoes, skins and all. The first time I made this recipe I did not own a food mill and I actually like the sauce with tiny bits of skin.

My friend, Gwen shares her favorite food mill by Roots & Branches. This large funnel sauce maker really reduces the time on making 60 lbs. of sauce. All you need to do is cut the tomatoes into a size that will fit down the throat of the funnel. Turn the hand crank and the seeds, core and skin are removed. No need to cut the tomatoes into 16 pieces. See food mill here.

What’s left is tomato pureé which you will reduce in half for a thicker sauce. In Rick’s recipe, he recommends using a food mill after cooking the tomatoes the first time. The food mill I own suggests using the food mill before cooking.

What is interesting is that regardless of when you use the food mill, the sauce is equally delicious. Note: Using such large quantities of tomatoes, I prefer not having to remove the core, skins and seeds and cutting the tomatoes into 16 pieces when the food mill does all that work for me. A real time saver.

The recipe below, using 3 lbs. of tomatoes, produces approximately 2 cups of sauce. After using the food mill, you will get 4 cups of pureé. With a vigorous simmer, you will reduce it by half.

Again, depending on the quantity of tomatoes, you can either refrigerate, freeze in Ziploc bags or preserve your sauce in jars for long term storage.

To learn more about canning your sauce for year round use, see my post on Processing Tomatoes here.

Another change I did make to Rick’s recipe is allowing the sauce to sit overnight. I did not do that, nor did I skim the floating olive oil off the sauce. I went straight to preserving and using a water bath to can the 20 jars.

My recommendation would be to follow Rick’s recipe the first time and then make any adjustments based on the quantity of your tomatoes. Needless to say, I do love this recipe because it focuses on the simple, fresh ingredients and makes a fabulous tomato sauce.

The discarded parts of the tomato are put to good use. Happily, the chickens did receive a large tray of scraps, which they quickly consumed.

The rest of the tomato scraps are sent to the compost tumbler where their water content will help the dry yard material convert to gorgeous soil.

Even the tomato boxes are put into good use…..a place for Donovan, our Maine coon cat, to play.

All in all, the entire cutting, cooking, reducing and canning 60 lbs. of tomatoes did consume a weekend. But in the middle of winter when I can open a jar of fresh tomato sauce, it will be all worth it.

Happy Tuesday! As I write this it is dark and gloomy and we are praying for more rain. Have a lovely day.

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