Anyone done Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Home Grown Tomatoes?

aukerns08

After seeing the garden thread back in the spring the wife and I decided to give gardening a try this year and we planted some Roma tomatoes, pumpkin and a few other veggies.  The tomatoes really took off and we have way more ripe tomatoes than we know what to do with at this point.  We've been giving them away to family and friends but they just keep coming, never thought 3 plants would've produced so much.  I'm trying to use some of these up before they go bad and thought a version of the family spaghetti sauce was a good idea.  I've only done it with canned tomatoes in the past so I'm not sure how exactly this will turn out but I'll be giving it a whirl when I wake up.  Anyone given it a try before?  

I'm thinking the best way would be to par-boil the tomatoes for a minute or so to get the skins off easily and going from there.  Like I said I'm not sure but I'm planning on bringing my Grandad over for dinner after it's done to see what he thinks.  He's first generation Italian-American so it's his recipe I'm using as the base.  If he likes it then it's a hit and we'll keep doing it year after year.  It will be easy to tell if he likes it or not, typical first gen Italian-American, he can't hide his true feelings well even if he says one thing to make you feel better about it. 

I bought ground pork, beef and veal to make some of our meatballs to go with it.  I'm planning on baking the meatballs this time on the Egg instead of the oven to see how they turn out that way.  I'll post pictures as I make progress but if anyone has attempted this and has insight I'd be glad to have it.

Scottborasjr

Done plenty of salsa with garden tomatoes but never done sauce. Will be watching.

jls9595

Plan sounds good. I did this last week with our tomato surplus. I just skinned about 10 tomatoes and threw into the blender with some olive oil, fresh garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt, Italian seasoning and oregano. I blended a little too much so poured into a pan and simmered with some corn starch to thicken. I used it for pizza sauce and spaghetti and meatballs the next day. It was great but I'm sure yours will be better, I didn't really know what I was doing. Hard to mess up fresh home grown tomatoes.

Eggpharmer

This is real good - 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tomato-sauce-recipe.html

You could do the same roasting process but with your recipe instead. 

hoofaloos

I'd say you're on the right track. I've done this a few times when we have a surplus and it's always great. Par-boil, core, hand crush, then simmer with whatever you like in your sauce. Also, I simmer with a rib bone and always cook my meatballs and sausage right in the sauce. You may need to skim fat from the sauce (especially if you do sausage) but it's totally worth the added time. Let us know how it turns out

TTC

They make a killer sauce, one of my wife's absolute favorite dinners. Only thing I will add to above methods is to add coked pasta to skillet with sauce and sautee for a couple of minutes, rather than spooning sauce over the top of plain pasta. Enjoy

DieselkW

I like to put fresh tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds each, then into an ice water bath. The skins will literally fall off.
Slice them in half and gently squeeze to remove the seeds - keep those seeds for next year to start in March inside. Home grown tomato seeds have a 95% germination rate.

Simmer them on low with basil and oregano for a few hours. Use a potato masher if it's too "chunky" for your taste.

Don't forget the garlic and onions when you bake the meatballs. Scrape all that meat and deglazed pan stuff into the sauce.

Enjoy!

Botch

DieselkW said:

I like to put fresh tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds each, then into an ice water bath. The skins will literally fall off.
Slice them in half and gently squeeze to remove the seeds - keep those seeds for next year to start in March inside. Home grown tomato seeds have a 95% germination rate.

I don't seed my tomatoes before cooking anymore, I think the "seed Jelly" has some flavor to it also.  Sauce is a bit more watery at first but a little extra simmering takes care of that.
Haven't tried saving the seeds, but I can't grow tomatoes to save my soul, and this is my last year of trying (fortunately we have a great farmer's market).  

fiver29

I followed the recipe in the big green egg cookbook last year.  It was awesome.  I will probably do that again this year.  I'm going to skip seeding them.  That took too much time.  

And, yes, you grill the tomatoes first.  Made for an awesome grill roasted sauce.

fiver29

A couple pics:

Dredger

Roma was a good choice for a sauce/paste tomato because they don't have a lot of seeds or liquid. Good advice all around about blanching to peel easily.

If you have a Vitamix, all you would need to do is core the stem end, halve the tomatoes and blend on high for about 30 seconds per batch. No need to peel or seed since it will be all liquid. Then simmer to thicken and reduce to your preference. About an hour. If you prefer a "chunkier" sauce, add a few diced up Romas to the liquid.

Another great way to preserve excess tomatoes is to dehydrate them, then powder them in a blender. Add water to the powder to make sauce, paste, or juice. The amount of water dictates the end result.

Paste: Combine 3/4 cup tomato powder with 2 cups water.
Sauce: Combine 1/2 cup tomato powder with 2 cups water.
Juice: Combine 1/8 cup tomato powder with 2 cups water.

Keep in mind that most canned tomato sauces contain salt, citric acid, "natural flavorings, etc.", so you will need to add your own seasonings and adjust to your liking.

Congrats on your garden and I'm sure your father will have a smile on his face after tasting homemade tomato sauce again. Good luck.

Hungry Joe

I always use plum tomatoes. Lately, after cutting the stem off, I have been just putting them in a pan raised indirect at around 350  for about 20 minutes and the skins pop right off. Then I add EVO, garlic, fresh basil, salt and pepper. Let that cook until it turns to the consistency you want. Usually the tomatoes just fall apart but I like it chunky. If I want them smaller I just slice them up right in the pan.

This sauce is killer with lump crab meat added at the end. The best I have ever had anywhere.

Its very simple to make and has an excellent flavor.

Cookinbob

I do Arribiata sauce with fresh plum tomatoes, Bacon, Garlic , Red Pepper, and fresh Basil.  That's it, super simple and amazing flavor.  Saute the bacon, add the garlic for a few, then the tomatoes (skinned and diced a bit) and red pepper.  Cook down for 15-20 min, then add the Basil and serve.   You will thank me later

aukerns08

Just getting started here's 4lbs of tomatoes. I'm going to par boil, skin, core and hand crush cooking the meatballs in the sauce. More pics to follow as we progress just using my iPad for pics so they may not be high quality.

Beavercreek_Smoker

I used Alton Brown recipe. Roasted split Roma tomatoes and ran it through a food mill. I had 88 fresh Roma tomatoes from the garden. Bought some canning jars for a bunch of sauce. Well I got 2, that's right 2 meals out of it. 

It it was very good but a lot of work for a couple of dinners. I might try another recipe to see if it heals more. 

Hawg Fan

I always make spaghetti or pizza sauce when I have an abundance of tomatoes.  It sounds like you have a solid plan and some good advice from some of the forum members.  Care to share that family recipe?

aukerns08

2 lbs each of ground pork, beef, and veal for the meatballs I probably rolled the a little bigger than normal. 46 meatballs on the egg at 350 with a couple chunks of post oak prior to going into the sauce.

aukerns08

@Hawg Fan I don't mind posting the recipe.  It won't be until later until I do it I'm trying to keep everything moving the family is coming over to give criticism, I mean have dinner later.

aukerns08

The sauce turned out great and everyone like it.  It turned out that 4 lbs of tomatoes doesn't make enough sauce for 9 hungry Italians so I had to call an audible and some canned tomatoes to the sauce but it was still a really good result.  The sauce tasted close to the same as it normally does with our recipe but just a little lighter and fresher.  It was really and I think I might be using fresh tomatoes more often when available, I also used fresh basil and parsley from our herb garden so that was a nice addition as well.  Best part of the day, minus the good family time and the wine, was Vito (Grandad) loved the sauce so mission accomplished.  I didn't get pictures of the plated meal (I know didn't happen) but I have one of the sauce simmering away on the stove.  

aukerns08

@Hawg Fan  here's our recipe for the sauce.  It's the base we use and just multiply for more, we never just do a small batch it's usually 4x this to freeze some and it gets better after freezing for some reason.  Another note is that this is my great Grandmother's recipe and she never used a measuring spoon or cup in her life, she just knew how it should taste.  Her measurements were a pinch of this, a palm of that so there has been great frustration from the two generations ahead of me trying to get an actual recipe to hand down.  Here's what they came up with and we add salt and pepper to it to get it to where we think it should be.

Tomato Sauce - Pappano Version
1 32 ounce can tomato purée
1 32 ounce  can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 jigger bourbon/whiskey (We always use Virginia Gentleman, since we're in VA and it's fairly inexpensive)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup parsley flakes1 tsp basil flakes
Water - see directions
Directions:

Add all ingredients to large pot. Rinse tomato cans with water and add to sauce, about 1/2 full with water. Add meatballs and seared pork cops or roast for flavor and simmer for several hours.

fishlessman

if you end up with lots at the end of the season you can freeze in ziplocks laying flat on cardboard dividers. i simmer the skinned maters, parsley, and basil, then add the other ingredients in after thawing so i can change up the sauce profile