Homemade Tomato Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes

• Start preparing your plum tomatoes by chopping them into large chunks.
• Put a large stockpot with about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat on the stove.
• Add the chunks of tomatoes and stir occasionally.

• Cook the tomatoes until they have softened and released their water (about 10-12 minutes). While the tomatoes are cooking, preheat oven to 225°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil.
• Using a food mill or stand mixer’s vegetable strainer attachment, pass cooked tomatoes through vegetable mill. Reserve the liquid & discard the skin and seeds.

[I HIGHLY recommend investing in a vegetable strainer attachment for your stand mixer. A job that normally takes hours to manually grind, will take you 5 minutes*].

I have KitchenAid’s stand mixer vegetable strainer attachment [click here for the link!] and IT’S THE BEST. I included a step by step photo for when you assemble it because the set up took an inordinate amount of time for my first use (seriously, took me like an hour hahaha).

• Divide the liquid from the cooked plum tomatoes into 3 parts:

  Part 1 Tomato Paste: Pour about 2 cups or ⅓ of your liquid into the prepared lined baking sheet. If your baking sheet is too large and sauce is spread too thin, fold up edges of tinfoil to make it smaller. This helps the paste cook evenly without any burning.

• Transfer baking sheet to the oven & check and stir every 15-20 minutes. The purée will begin to thicken into a paste.

• Part 2 Is simple, just measure out 1 cup of the cooked tomato purée liquid and set it aside.
• Part 3 Put a stockpot with about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-low heat on the stove and add diced onion and minced garlic. Stir and cook until fragrant (about 1-2 minutes). Add the remainder of the cooked tomato purée to the stockpot and let it simmer. The sauce will begin to reduce and thicken (this usually takes about 40 minutes, simmering over low heat and stirring occasionally).

• When the sauce has reduced, remove from heat and add in sprig of basil. Let the basil steep for 5-10 minutes and then discard it.

• Your purée and paste will be ready to combine once the tomato paste has thickened and the purée on the stove has reduced and is finished steeping. Stir tomato paste into the stockpot with reduced sauce, then add in “part 2” with the purée that was set aside and salt *to taste. -Enjoy!

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5 from 2 votes

Homemade Tomato Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes

MULTI-LAYERED Homemade Tomato Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes 🍅. Boy am I grateful for each layer (paste, sauce and puree) as they uniquely impart delicious texture + taste.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time3 hrs

Total Time3 hrs 15 mins

Course: Sauce

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: basil, fresh tomatoes, garden to table, marinara, pizza sauce, tomato, tomato sauce

Servings: 6 cups

Author: Callie

Equipment

• KitchenAid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer Set with Food Grinder Attachment OR Manual Vegetable Mill

Ingredients

• 5-8 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (I love using a variety of roma and san marzano), cut into large chunks *I use about 40 plum tomatoes for this recipe
• 2-3 olive oil
• ¼ large yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 large sprig fresh basil
• maldon sea salt flakes

Instructions

• Start preparing your plum tomatoes by chopping them into large chunks.
• Put a large stockpot with about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat on the stove.
• Add the chunks of tomatoes and stir occasionally.
• Cook the tomatoes until they have softened and released their water (about 10-12 minutes). While the tomatoes are cooking, preheat oven to 225°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil.
• Using a food mill or stand mixer's vegetable strainer attachment, pass cooked tomatoes through vegetable mill. Reserve the liquid & discard the skin and seeds.

  [I HIGHLY recommend investing in a vegetable strainer attachment for your stand mixer. A job that normally takes hours to manually grind, will take you 5 minutes*].
  
• Divide the liquid from the cooked plum tomatoes into 3 parts:

  Part 1 Tomato Paste: Pour about 2 cups or ⅓ of your liquid into the prepared lined baking sheet. If your baking sheet is too large and sauce is spread too thin, fold up edges of tinfoil to make it smaller. This helps the paste cook evenly without any burning.
  
• Transfer baking sheet to the oven & check and stir every 15-20 minutes. The purée will begin to thicken into a paste.
  
• Part 2 Is simple, just measure out 1 cup of the cooked tomato purée liquid and set it aside.
• Part 3 Put a stockpot with about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-low heat on the stove and add diced onion and minced garlic. Stir and cook until fragrant (about 1-2 minutes). Add the remainder of the cooked tomato purée to the stockpot and let it simmer. The sauce will begin to reduce and thicken (this usually takes about 40 minutes, simmering over low heat and stirring occasionally).
• When the sauce has reduced, remove from heat and add in sprig of basil. Let the basil steep for 5-10 minutes and then discard it.
  
• Your purée and paste will be ready to combine once the tomato paste has thickened and the purée on the stove has reduced and is finished steeping. Stir tomato paste into the stockpot with reduced sauce, then add in "part 2" with the purée that was set aside and salt *to taste. -Enjoy!

Notes

Store this sauce in an air tight container and refrigerate or freeze!

Nutrition

Serving: 12servings