I might have been a little too ambitious when it came time to plant the garden. Last year we had two tomato plants. This year we had 18. Yes 18. This included 6 cherry tomato plants which is way too many cherry tomato plants by the way. Next year we are only doing 2 of that variety – one yellow and one red. We also had 6 Roma tomato plants and 6 early girl tomato plants.

I have been working through my tomatoes like crazy. I have made numerous batches of tomato sauce for various dinners as needed and I have frozen about 10 pints of tomato sauce for the winter months. 10 pints really isn’t that much if you use a pint at a time for recipes. I probably use a pint a week for spaghetti or lasagna so I really only have 10 weeks worth of sauce.

Everyone has their favorite recipe. I always change the amounts of seasoning depending on my mood. The only thing I keep constant, the key ingredient for me for a good tomato sauce, is the bay leaf. This is absolutely essential for all good tomato sauces in my opinion. This is probably because my mother used to make tomato sauce and she used bay leaves in her recipes.

I don’t remember many things she made. This is because she wasn’t the best cook. Sorry mom. She wasn’t terrible but I don’t have any fond memories or favorite dishes she made. The only great thing I remember was her long, slow simmer of tomato sauce with a bay leaf.

Tomato Sauce (serves 2)

If you have dozens of tomatoes to work through feel free to double or quadruple this recipe & freeze it for when your garden is covered in snow.

• 10-12 ripe tomatoes (I prefer a combination of roma & vine-on)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 tsp garlic, minced
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper or more if desired
• 1 bay leaf

Score an ‘X’ on the top of each tomato.

Blanch in boiling water for 30-60seconds until the skins split. Remove from the boiling water and add to an ice bath.

Remove skins. Remove the core portion on top. Roughly chop the tomatoes if you want it to cook down more quickly. Otherwise just cut them in half or so if you don’t care how long it takes.

Saute the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 2-3 more minutes.

Add the tomatoes and the seasoning. Simmer, covered, on low for 2 hours. Remove the bay leaf. Leave as is if you like your sauce a bit chunky or puree with an immersion blender.