Brielle's Avalon

When one has a garden and a surfeit of tomatoes, and has made all the variations on salads and sandwiches that one can bear there may be nothing for it but to put all the tomatoes in one pot and make sauce.

Pick your tomatoes.

Set a pot on the stove and toss in a chopped onion with a knob of butter, bacon fat or some olive oil. Stir with a spoon or wooden thing frequently. Add rosemary, garlic and celery if you like. Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn or it’ll be bitter.

While that’s sautéing, wash and cut your tomatoes into quarters, unless they’re small, then you can cut them in 1/2 or just toss really small ones (smaller than cherry) in whole.

When the onions have gone soft and are starting to show some colour, toss in the tomatoes and add some wine and a sprig of rosemary if you have some.

And enough water to make sure the tomatoes don’t burn. You want them to simmer down to sauce but not dry up. You also don’t want to simmer for ages trying to simmer off excess water. After a while the little ones will burst and start to break down. It’s fun to smash them with a spoon to help it along, though.

When it’s simmered a while but doesn’t seem to be breaking down compleatly, it’s OK to zap it in a blender…just don’t fill it over 1/2 full and start slow with a towel between your hand and the lid. You don’t want your kitchen looking like a murder scene. You’ll want to avoid burns, too. Use another pot or bowl to get all the sauce done if that’s what you want.

Once you’ve zapped part or all of the sauce, put it back in the pot to finish simmering.

Add pepper, oregano, basil and any other seasonings you like. Simmer a bit more and serve over pasta, make pizza, lasagna, dip breadsticks…all the good stuff! Have good noms!

Save the extra sauce in the fridge for a few days or freeze it in smaller containers for future use.