As the last of the summer fruit shows up in the stores, it’s time to grab some inexpensive, over-ripe tomatoes & whip up your own home-made tomato sauce.
Well the new kitchen is up and running, albeit with raw, scarred walls where the old tiles were removed, which is pretty ugly – so I have no update on these images just yet (except for a tiny hint I shared on Instagram last week). I’m taking my time re-assembling the contents of the kitchen, which had been spread out over three rooms (and the passageway). It’s the perfect opportunity to reconsider the virtues of embarrassing amounts of stuff and also reassess the previous cupboard configurations, so there’s still not a whole lot of culinary inspiration to share.
A tiny peek at the new kitchen.
One thing I did have to deal with last week, as a matter of some urgency, was a large bag of tomatoes that had been given to me before we went for our walk in New Zealand. They were quickly becoming over-ripe. The perfect opportunity to whip up some home-made tomato sauce (or ketchup to those in the US)!
I know not many make their own sauce any more, but it really is so much more delicious than the shop-bought variety and dead simple to make, too. (Really, would I suggest making anything that isn’t easy?)
Autumn seems to be a little impatient this year, and the summer fruit is finishing fast, so you’ll find plenty of over-ripe tomatoes going cheap in the greengrocers. All you need is a saucepan and a wooden spoon, along with the fruit (yes, tomatoes are actually a fruit) and some spices.
I still had no cooktop when my tomatoes became urgent, so I let my Magimix Cook Expert to do the work for me, but this home-made tomato sauce recipe remains the same no matter the method. The cooking times will vary, depending upon the amount of liquid in the tomatoes, so you will need to keep a bit of an eye on it and stop cooking when it has thickened to your liking.
Remember to wash and sterilise your bottles beforehand. I wash them in hot soapy water or run them through the dishwasher, then stand them in an oven set at 130C for about 10 minutes. DO NOT pour hot sauce into cold bottles, that way lies curses, cuts and calamity. Cool the sauce for a while before pouring.
This recipe will make up about half the volume that you started with and stores happily in the fridge for some weeks (if it lasts that long).
Home-Made Tomato Sauce For Dummies
Ingredients
- 1 kg tomatoes - roughly chopped if cooking on the stove halved or quartered if using the Cook Expert
- 1 tsp each ground cloves, black pepper, ground ginger, (or 2 teaspoons of fresh grated ginger)
- 2 tsp of allspice
- 3 cloves of garlic crushed
- 6 gms salt
- 120 gms apple cider vinegar
- 200 gms raw sugar
Instructions
- COOK EXPERT
- Add all ingredients, except the sugar, to the CE bowl. Remove the cap before locking the lid on. Cook for 25 minutes at 110C, speed 3.
- Add the sugar, cook (cap off) for 45-60 minutes, 110C, speed 2A.
- Check consistency at 45 minutes, continue cooking until it is thickened to your liking.
- Cool, blitz on speed 18 until smooth, pour into sterilised bottles and seal. Store in the fridge.
- STOVE TOP
- Place all ingredients, except sugar, in a pan over high heat. Stir until boiling. Reduce to moderate heat, simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally for 20-30 minutes.
- Add sugar, simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally for a further 45-60 minutes, until it has reduced and thickened to a sauce-like consistency.
- Press through a fine sieve, or cool then blitz in a food processor or with a stab mixer until smooth.
- Pour into sterilised bottles and seal. Store in the fridge.
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That looks like an interesting tomato sauce. Is it very caramelised so that it is dark? It looks very rich in flavour.
Sounds delicious, Amanda. I wish Peter liked sauces like this. I used to make them all the time for my then husband.
I wish I could find cheap tomatoes up here, perhaps its a post cyclone thing, but tomatoes are around $8/kg. I’ve been making chutneys and sauces with the inexpensive fruit and vegetables, a tomato sauce like this is in my future I know. I like that it has a rich colour to it, makes me think it would be sweet. Hope your NZ walking tour was/is fun, heading over to your socials now for a look at your trip.