Farm to Table: Fresh Tomato Sauce

This is the first post of our new blog series, Farm to Table, where I will purchase produce from a local farm or market and use it to make home cooked meal. With so many local farms and markets in the area, there’s always something fresh and delicious to choose from. I hope you’ll join me on these cooking adventures – I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.

Let’s get cooking!

Sunfrost Farms

One of my favorite local places to shop is Sunfrost Farms in Woodstock. Don’t let the size of this place fool you – there is a ton of fresh local produce and gourmet foods packed into this tiny market! When I went in last weekend I was so excited see that they were selling local San Marzano tomatoes, which are ideal for making fresh tomato sauce. So of course I thought, what a perfect recipe for our first Farm to Table post!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Here’s what you’ll need:

24 Ripe Tomatoes (San Marzano, Amish Paste, Roma or Beefsteak)
1 medium onion – chopped
2 cloves of garlic – minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or more, to taste)
2 teaspoons of black pepper (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
½ cup fresh basil

You Say Tomato…

First, you’ll need to cook and puree the tomatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of iced water ready nearby. Plunge the whole tomatoes into the water for one to two minutes. Remove when you see the skin starting to peel and place in ice bath to cool. 

Once the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, remove the peel and slice in half. Remove the seeds retaining as much of the pulp as possible.

Puree the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and put aside. I used 24 tomatoes and ended up with 4 cups of pureed tomatoes. If you prefer a chunky sauce then chop some of the tomatoes instead of pureeing and put aside until later.

Tomato Paste

Fresh tomato sauce should have a bright and fruity aroma of barely cooked fruit. But it also can have a tart flavor too. To combat that tartness, I would suggest adding tomato paste to your sauce which will increase the sweetness. Yes, you can buy ready made tomato paste – but if you are going through all the trouble to make this sauce from scratch, you might as well take it one step further and make the paste too! There are a few ways to make tomato paste from fresh tomatoes. Here’s how I did it: Take 1 ½ cups of my pureed tomatoes and poured them onto a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes (or longer) – but keep checking on them. You need to continually mix the tomatoes around so that they don’t burn or stick. Once the water evaporates you’ll be left with a sweet tomato paste that’s darker in color. Scrap from the baking sheet and put aside.

Putting It All Together

In a large pot over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook onion until it starts to soften, about 5 minutes. Then, add garlic and cook for another minute. Next, pour in the pureed tomatoes, add any chopped tomatoes you put aside and then add in your tomato paste. Stir in the salt, pepper, oregano, and fresh basil. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours.

Farm to Table: Make It a Meal

Don’t just throw your delicious sauce on the same old dried pasta. Local pasta maker La Bella Pasta makes a variety of fresh pastas that would be an excellent accompaniment to this sauce. Add a salad and fresh bread from Bread Alone Bakery and you have a full meal made with ingredients directly from the Hudson Valley.  Bon Appetit!