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My Favorite Summer Tomato Sauce
 
Tom Woteki, July 2002
Cooking and eating seasonally has been a favored and important way to mark the cycle of seasons at our household. As with asparagus in Spring, so with tomatoes in Summer.
Here is a very simple-to-prepare fresh tomato sauce. It yields a sauce that is intense in flavor, both sweet and fresh with the acidity of a real, farm-raised and vine-ripened tomatoes. I use it as the base in many other preparations, including eggplant parmigiana, another summertime favorite at my house. I try to prepare it with only very fresh seasonal ingredients including the onion and the herbs. I get the onions at my farmers market; at this time of the year they are no longer spring onions but neither have they formed their papery coverings. They are, er, middle aged shall we say? (And all the better for it, I might add.)
Experiment with the herbs separately. They are all distinctive.
Obtain:
• 6-8 or more large, real and ripe summertime tomatoes such as beefsteak
• EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 medium spring onion
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• 1 t sugar
• 2 t salt or to taste
• generous cuttings of either fresh basil, thyme or marjoram to taste
• ground pepper to taste
Proceed:
• Cut the tops off the tomatoes (stem end) and gently squeeze out the seeds and the watery pulp they cling to. Roughly chop the tomatoes into eighths or so.
• Cook the tomatoes over medium low heat in a shallow saute pan until the skins begin to separate from the fruit and they start to fall apart, 15 - 20 minutes. Let cool until ready to handle.
• Pass the fruit through a food mill. (Use the finest milling disk you have, if you have a choice.) Discard the separated seeds and skins. Reserve the processed fruit.
• Chop the onion medium fine. Chop the garlic. Saute all in the EVOO over medium low heat until soft and translucent. Use the same pan you cooked the tomatoes in.
• Add the tomatoes. Continue cooking at a slow simmer until the sauce is almost reduced to the consistency you want.
• Add the salt, pepper and herbs. Continue cooking slowly until sauce reaches desired consistency.
• Correct seasonings. Let cool, reheat when ready to use.
Yields about 1 qt. sauce. Can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for a dreary February day.

Dr. Wo