Simple Heirloom Tomato Basil Sauce (Food Week, Day 3)

Have you ever seen yellow tomato sauce before?

Well, I spent all evening taking the tomatoes in the top picture and turning them into tomato sauce, and then jarring it up. That part was extremely satisfying, but because it was evening, the light was not superb, and I'm not really satisfied with either of these shots. Yes, I could have used some lighting equipment, but I was a bit lazy. Let's just leave it at that.

What I am satisfied with, however, is the sauce. WOW. I love heirloom tomato sauce. It has a flavor that you just wouldn't believe. Mmmmmm. I'm going to be having dreams all night.

Ingredients:
Heirloom tomatoes (I used striped Germans, mostly)
Fresh basil

Optional:
Olive oil, butter, salt

The recipe is simple. Take some heirloom tomatoes, cut them in half or into quarters, put them in a pot on low to medium heat. Cook them like this for a while at a simmer to reduce the amount of liquid involved. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. When the consistency is something like a thin sauce, put the liquid through a food mill to remove the skins and some of the seeds. (Or you could just leave them in. I've tried it with and without skins, and I don't really mind them. But I got a food mill, so I used it.)

Then continue to reduce the amount of liquid in the sauce by keeping it at a low simmer. The sauce is going to spatter; that's expected. At this point I add some fresh basil to taste. (I personally like a lot of basil, but you may not.) Also, you might add some salt. But you're not going to need a lot, because if there's one thing this sauce isn't lacking, it's flavor.

Continue cooking down the sauce until it keeps its shape on a spoon, or there's very little liquid rising to the top. At this point you can add some olive oil or a little butter, but you really might not need to. It's so delicious. The only drawback is that the cooking time can be rather long, and you don't end up with a lot of sauce. I started with probably 12-15 pounds of tomatoes and I ended up with 4 12 ounce jars of sauce. But you also don't need a lot of sauce for a bowl of pasta - like I said, it has a lot of flavor. You really don't need any parmesan cheese to go with it, and trust me, usually I'm a parmesan fiend.

If you try this, I'd love to hear about it. Or if you have any other great tomato sauce recipes you'd like to share, please do.

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I'm trying something new. This is food week on the blog. Every day I'll post a photo of food and then either a story or a recipe. Want to join in? Join the flickr group and post your food photos! (Yay! I am now not the only one in the Flickr group. Please don't be shy and come post some photos of delicious food.)