Susie's Tomato Sauce

Susie's tomato sauce (adapted from "Lydia's Italy" ala PBS's Create!)

About a dozen or so fresh tomatoes, blanched and peeled with seeds removed (as best as you can manage). I used medium to small tomatoes.

A bunch of basil

4 cloves of garlic minced

1-2 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

This recipe is extremely simple once you have processed the tomatoes. That is the hard part. You will most likely want to kill me after you have peeled and deseeded the tomatoes. But, this process is the secret to sweet tomato sauce. The seeds and the skins will make the sauce bitter and you will have to spend extra time working to sweeten the sauce. Most likely you will have to add additional ingredients (such as carrots or sugar) that will ruin the simplicity of the recipe and the simple goodness of tomato, basil, and garlic combination.

Mince the garlic. Saute in the olive oil on medium heat. Do not brown the garlic! You should be able to cook it a minute or two before you risk this. (If you like onions in your sauce--I sometimes do--add them before the garlic and cook until translucent). At this point, add the tomatoes and the basil. Break up the tomatoes with your fingers as you add them to the pot (you can also do this with a spoon after you add them to the pot). The basil should be added whole, it is best if you put it in with all the leaves connected by the stem as this makes it easier to remove later. Cook for a couple of hours or until it is the thickness and taste that makes you happy. Add salt and pepper to taste (it will most likely need a little salt). Remove the basil, as it will be bitter after cooking for a couple of hours. Now serve.

This sauce is really good on pasta, in lasagna, and can be used on pizza if you like a chunky pizza sauce.