<p>Picked quite a few tomatoes from my first official garden, a square foot garden at a local community garden. Thought I’d take some of them and make a marinara sauce if possible to freeze. I don’t can and have no desire to start - so let’s not go there!!! </p>
<p>Anyone have a simple recipe for a marinara or base tomato sauce for fresh tomato to freezer recipe???</p>
<p>I would like to see one, too. I think I am a good cook but this is something I’ve never been able to get right.</p>
<p>I could just skin and seed them, then chop and freeze and make marinara later too. But thought I’d check the recipe boxes of my CC friends first. 
</p>
<p>I’m extremely lazy. I wash and chunk tomatoes without skinning them, then puree them just before cooking to make marinara sauce; it tastes very fresh, and a minimum of effort is required.</p>
<p>I don’t use recipes (with measurements and such) for anything, so I’ll let someone else give you that part. But the first thing I would do is wash, dry, then coat the tomatoes with a little olive oil and roast them a bit. It intensifies the tomato flavor. Then proceed with the usual suspects in the sauce: onion, garlic, oregano, basil, more olive oil, etc. If the tomatoes are really juicy (making the sauce watery) I might add some tomato paste. If too dense or if you want to let it cook down a bit (as I like to do for more tomato flavor), add some stock.</p>
<p>Freezes beautifully in small containers. Just leave a little room for expansion at the top.</p>
<p>This is not an easy sauce but delicious and light; I make it in quantity every other year or so, depending.</p>
<p>This recipe is from Marcella Hazen’s The Classic Italian Cook Book - it’s her “Tomato Sauce II”. I usually use more tomato and less of the other veggies (anywhere from 5 to 8 pounds of tomato, maybe cup and a half each of the veggies. I also throw in some fresh basil. I use a bit more olive oil since I like a thinner lighter sauce. I freeze all but one jar, then when I thaw it, add a bit more oil and heat.</p>
<p>(In step 3, I puree in the food processor, then press the puree through a sieve before returning to the pan.)</p>
<p>For 6 servings:</p>
<p>2 pounds fresh, ripe plum tomatoes (I blanch for 60 seconds, then peel, and seed before cooking)
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped carrot
2/3 cup chopped onion
Salt
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup olive oil</p>
<ol>
<li>Wash the tomatoes in cold water. Cut them in half, lengthwise. Cook in a covered stockpot or saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes.</li>
<li>Add the carrot, celery, onion, 2 teaspoons salt, and sugar and cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.</li>
<li>Puree everything through a food mill, return to the pan, add the olive oil, and cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. Taste and correct for salt. </li>
</ol>
<p>Second the recommendation for the Marcella Hazan recipe above.</p>
<p>I make a simple sauce the way my Italian-born MIL taught me to do:
Blanch the tomatoes, plunge into cold water and slip off the skins. Squeeze out as many seeds as possible. You can also use a food mill for this, which does a better job. The skins and the seeds are bitter, so you need to remove as much as possible. Puree the tomatoes in a food processor. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add several cloves of garlic, roughly sliced. Add a few red pepper flakes. Saute on low heat for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened. Season generously with salt and pepper. Stir in some fresh basil right before the sauce is served. If you’re freezing the sauce, leave it out and add it later…it turns brown and loses flavor if frozen or cooked too long.</p>
<p>Gourmetmom- Now that’s a marinara sauce! No need for a bunch of spices and other vegetables! Tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and basil! THAT IS ALL! </p>
<p>Both of my grandmothers made it that way. One came over on a boat from Sicily, the other was Neapolitan and born in NYC. It was the only recipe they EVER agreed on lol!</p>
<p>^^^Agreed! If the tomatoes are good, and they should be this time of year, there is no need to add anything else. It’s all about the tomatoes!</p>
<p>^^Wow, how interesting. All these years I’ve been making it similar to Marilyn with carrots and celery…good to know the basics from a real Italian Mil, thanks! I also enjoy making and freezing now to enjoy during the winter months…
As a side note, we grow tomatoes in our outside container garden and besides marinara sauce, I recently made a tomato pie that got rave reviews. Carmelized onions, two different cheeses and lots of fresh garden tomatoes. And Basil. Yum.</p>
<p>Roasted tomato marinara (I also make roasted vegetable marinara with anything I have --eggplant, onions, peppers) </p>
<ol>
<li> Preheat oven to 375 degrees</li>
<li> Prepare a roasting pan by brushing bottom with olive oil</li>
<li> Wash, core and halve tomatoes (and other vegetables, if you’re using them), place cut side down in roasting
pan. You do not need to skin the tomatoes.</li>
<li> Roast for 45 minutes.</li>
<li> Remove from oven. Let cool for 15 minutes. There will be a lot of water in the pan.</li>
<li> Using a slotted spoon, remove tomatoes from pan and puree in blender in batches. Put pureed mix in a large saucepan.</li>
<li> To the saucepan, add 3 crushed cloves of garlic and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes</li>
<li> Simmer sauce, uncovered, until thick. Add salt and pepper (and more red pepper) to taste. Stir in as much julienned fresh basil as you like.</li>
<li> Let cool.</li>
<li> Place in quart or gallon freezer bags, depending on the number of people you serve.</li>
</ol>
<p>This sauce has seeds in it. It is delicious and nobody complains! You can add olive oil if you want. It could not be easier. I have 4 gallons of it yesterday. You can also just roast and puree the tomatoes and freeze that as fresh tomato sauce for recipes throughout the Winter.</p>
<p>The acidity of the tomatoes bothers my stomach, which is why I add at least a carrot to my marinara–carrots are a natural sweetener. </p>
<p>^^if you don’t like the rustic nature of the marinara, you can put the sauce through a ricer and get rid of most of the seeds and skin. I just made a different version with just tomatoes, garlic, pinot noir, red pepper flakes and basil. Ran the roasted tomatoes through the ricer before I added the rest and simmered it. Yummy.</p>