Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce for the Freezer

Yesterday, I put Addy down for her nap and headed out to our very over grown garden to check out our tomato supply. 

When what did my eyes behold but not just specs of red but 

MULTITUDES OF RED SPECS...

I think Cocoa was concerned for his mother because as I was picking them and sweating and sweating and smiling and saying, "HOLY TOMATO HARVEST" over and over he kept looking at me perplexed. 

I had two full colanders 

My biggest bowl 

and a big tub full of tomatoes

and a few cucumbers that snuck up on us

(we thought we were done with cuc's). 

Oh my lanta... 

I don't have a pressure cooker and what my heart really desired was to can soup. 

But I decided I would roast pans of

tomatoes

fresh basil

onion

garlic cloves

salt and pepper

for 1 hour at 400 degrees. 

I wish my camera could capture the intensity of beautiful colors and smells before me. 

Smell vision anyone???

When they were roasted I let them sit in my oven till they were cool (oh yeah I turned the oven off :-)

Then I pureed them in my food processor. 

For each pan of tomato mixture I added: 

1 small can of tomato paste

about 1 Tbs. organic sugar

Then I pureed it. 

Once all of the pans were pureed I put them in a big pot and let it simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes. Then I put the sauce through a sieve. 

My friend Steph found me this Sieve (I think that's what it's called). 

The first time I made homemade sauce this summer I actually forgot I had it! 

I love how awesome it worked

I let it simmer on the stove again after it was sieved. It needed more spices to counteract the paste. But I loved how thick it looked! 

So I added some dried spices: 

Garlic Powder

Basil

Oregano

Italian Seasoning

Salt and Pepper

Josh and I agreed it tasted delicious by this point. 

Because it was midnight when I finished and I was pooped from cooking homemade orange chicken before this and cleaning up the kitchen...again, 

I decided to let the pan sit over night to cool completely. 

This morning I packaged the sauce in 2 cup increments. 

I got four bags and a good size bowl of sauce for dinner tonight out of the four pans I roasted. 

I'm thinking for dinner I might try like a Chicken Marsala with the sauce and I may add a few of the cubes of homemade pesto sauce I made a few weeks ago. Top with Parmesan or Mozzarella??? Hmmmm sounds yummy!