Rich & Silky: Easy Fresh Tomato Sauce Recipe (Beginner Friendly)
By TigreBlume
Harvest basket full of freshly picked tomatoes from home garden. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
Transforming homegrown paste tomatoes into rich, silky sauce is pure garden therapy. It’s a seasonal ritual I look forward to every single year!
I used my first mini tomato harvest and turned it into the most delightful, velvety tomato sauce! This consisted of a mix of Pozzano and Granadero paste tomatoes, along with all the sweet Sun Golds I picked that day. The flavor combination was incredible!☺️
Multiple bowls full of blanched tomatoes cooling on kitchen table. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
Here is a quick recap of how it came together:
✨Step 1: Blanch 📸 Cut a tiny slit in the skin of each tomato and submerge them in boiling water for 45 to 90 seconds, just until the skin starts pulling away. (Check out the photo to see what they look like after removing from the water!)
Close up image of blanched tomatoes. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
✨Step 2: Peel & Prep 📸 Peel and hand-chop the paste tomatoes into halves or thirds. Tip: The paste varieties I grow have super tender cores that completely dissolve during cooking, so no tedious coring is required in this instance! Otherwise, you’ll want to remove the core prior to the next step.
Pot of freshly sliced tomatoes, ready for stove top cooking. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
✨Step 3: Simmer & Reduce 📸 Toss everything into a large pot over medium-high heat. I let mine simmer for about 2.5 hours to reach a rich, thick marinara-style consistency.
Fresh batch of simmering tomato sauce, cooking in large pot atop the kitchen stovetop. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
✨Step 4: Blend to Perfection 📸 Once cooled, I poured the sauce into my Ninja blender and blended until ultra-smooth.
Fresh batch of cooked tomato sauce processed in a blender velvety smooth. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
✨Step 5 & 6: Jar & Chill 📸 Pour into pre-sanitized glass jars, allow to cool fully, and store in the fridge. Note: Since I’m using this batch over the next couple of weeks, I skipped the hot-water bath canning process and preservatives this time around. For long-term storage, I add a few teaspoons of lemon juice and place the jars in a hot-water bath for safe preservation. You can find canning and preservation tips here: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/canning-and-preserving-101.html.
Freshly canned homemade tomato sauce. Courtesy of TigreBlume.
Now that the tomato harvests are getting bigger each week, I am finding my way into the kitchen to mix up batches of sauce every chance I get. I’m also planning to make a few batches of canned salsa, pizza sauce, diced tomatoes and whatever else I can whip up quickly!
👇 What’s coming out of your garden these days? Drop a comment below!
