Homemade Red Wine Marinara Sauce

It was a great summer for tomatoes in my garden!  Even though the heavy rains and high temperatures stressed them tremendously, I was still able to pick more tomatoes than my husband and I could eat, even after giving many away.  I still have some ripening on my plants!

 

Last year, I tried freezing tomatoes whole, thinking I would use them in soups and stews, but I didn't use as many as I had hoped.  This year, I decided to make marinara sauce with my tomatoes to freeze and use in various pasta dishes or as a dip for eggplant or calamari throughout the fall and winter.  As of today, I've made three batches of marinara and have 14 pint jars in my freezer.  A pint of sauce is just about perfect for two.  

You could also use a water bath canning method with this but I think the frozen sauce tastes even more like garden fresh sauce.  I've adapted this recipe from several recipes and after three batches of tweaking the recipe, this tastes about as perfect as a marinara sauce can get.

Garlic, tomatoes, chopped basil and sprigs of oregano all from my garden.  Heavenly! 

A generous pour of red wine and then slowly simmered for up to five hours on the stove top to reduce to a sauce consistency and meld the flavors, I then used my immersion blender to whir it into a smooth sauce but you can leave it as coarse as you like. 

If you are still harvesting tomatoes, or have access to a farm stand or farmer's market, look for imperfect tomatoes that are sold at a discount.  You can always cut out any blemishes or brown spots before adding them to the pot.  Pick up some fresh basil and oregano while you're at it and one or two nice yellow tomatoes.  You'll have a great tasting, thick marinara sauce in an afternoon without spending a ton of time!

We're enjoying some beautiful early fall hues of purple, red and yellow in the garden and I'm not only still picking tomatoes but also flowers for bouquets.

I pulled out one of my mother's old ceramic pitchers (I think it might actually be a coffee or tea pot) to use as a vase.  I thought it suited the harvest season :)  Happy fall and harvest cooking!

Homemade Red Wine Marinara Sauce

Printable Recipe

Makes about 4-5 pints of sauce.

Recipe may be doubled or even tripled if you have a lot of tomatoes to use.  Cooking time will vary according to how many tomatoes you are using.  You may use canned tomatoes and dried herbs but you won't get the same, garden-fresh flavor.

4 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
4 pounds tomatoes (about 8-9 large) peeled and coarsely chopped, including juices
4 large cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, chopped
3/4 cup hearty red wine, such as cabernet or burgundy
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sugar

Note: The easiest way to peel tomatoes is to score the bottoms with an X using a sharp, serrated knife and put them into a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a large bowl of ice water. The skin will peel off easily with your hands. Do this in batches until all of your tomatoes are peeled.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and sauté until softened, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes, add minced garlic and sauté for another minute.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. Bring the liquid from the tomatoes to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 to 5 hours, stirring occasionally until reduced to a sauce consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.

Use an immersion blender, or a regular blender in small batches, process the sauce until it is as smooth as you like.  If desired, you can strain the sauce through a medium mesh strainer but it’s not necessary.

Homemade 'Chunky' Tomato Sauce

Hello!  I hope everyone is enjoying these last precious days of summer!  I've been doing my best to put the blog on hold to enjoy these last, glorious days. For the most part, it has been beautiful here, so there have been lots of golf and outdoor activities with family and friends.

Last week, on one rainy, chilly day, when a golf date with my husband was rained out, I decided to use the abundance of tomatoes I had on the kitchen counter to make tomato sauce.  Not to enjoy now, but to enjoy when the weather gets cold and pasta nights will be even more welcomed. 

This has been a banner tomato year.  I've read that others around the country have been enjoying a bountiful year as well. Even today, I harvested six gorgeous, big tomatoes. The other crazy thing about this summer is that we have barely had any mosquitoes all summer.  Now that is impressive!  All summer to enjoy the patio in the evening and not be chased indoors by mosquitoes.  Priceless!

I picked one HUGE tomato called, Mr. Stripey, that weighed over a pound and was over 5 inches long! I read not-so-stellar reviews of this tomato and I'm glad I gave it a try. It performed very well in my garden.

You can see by the slight yellow tinge to my tomato sauce that I used a few of those yellow and red striped tomatoes in this sauce. 

I tried a new-to-me recipe and loved it!  Very loosely adapted from this recipe, I altered the cooking method, tomato preparation and ingredients slightly, but it was the list of ingredients that made me choose it in the first place.  It is loaded with flavor!

The tomatoes were prepped by using the boiling water/ice bath method to remove the skins. After dicing, I drained the chopped tomatoes in a mesh colander to remove excess juice so the sauce wouldn't be too juicy.

After it was cool, it was transferred it to zipper bags and frozen to enjoy on a cool night in Autumn.  If you find yourself still picking tomatoes, or have a local farmers' market where you can buy them, please give this recipe a try.  It was so good, it was hard not to keep eating it out of the pan!  It is a 'chunky' style sauce and there are the seeds are left in it.  It neither of those things bother you, you will love it.

Homemade 'Chunky' Tomato Sauce

Adapted loosely from All Recipes

Printable Recipe

Update:  I made another batch of this recently and decided to use an immersion blender to smooth the sauce just a bit.  I know we'll enjoy it either way!

Note:  This recipe represents a half recipe of the original, which was all of the tomatoes I had on hand.  Double if you have lots of tomatoes.  

2 onions, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup canola oil
About 5-6 pounds of whole, garden tomatoes
1 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoons dried basil

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1/8 cup white sugar
1 tablespoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste (optional to use when you are ready to use the sauce)

Prepare a large pot of water to boil.  Have a large bowl of ice water ready next to the pot when the water is boiling.  Cut a shallow 'X' across the non-stem end of the tomato. Drop 3-4 whole tomatoes into the boiling water.  When the skin has cracked, about 1 minute or so, remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon to the ice water bath.  Repeat with all of the tomatoes.  Remove the skin from the tomatoes and core them.  Chop the tomatoes into about 1/2 inch pieces and place in a colander to drain for about 30 minutes. 

In a large stock pot over medium heat, saute the the onion, garlic, green pepper in the canola oil.  Stir often and watch carefully to that it doesn't burn. When the onion is transparent, add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, parsley, sugar, salt, and ground black pepper. Cook for about 2 hours on very low heat, stirring frequently.

Let sauce cool and pour sauce into quart size freezer containers.

Will keep in freezer for 3-4 months or longer if you have a deep freeze.

When ready to use sauce, you can stir in can of tomato paste, if desired, but I found it tasted great on its own.

TIP:  If using freezer bags, after filling, place flat on a baking sheet in freezer until fully frozen (about 2 hours) so that may be stored flat.