Tomato Harvest & Clean Marinara Sauce

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Lately my garden has been overflowing with tomatoes.

With the recent rise in temperature they have been ripening left and right. Now I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. My local grocery store is also selling roma tomatoes by the bushel now. I'm so sad that this probably means the end of summer is coming, but I do admit that fall is my favourite time of year. The produce is the best, you get to drink hot chocolate, bundle up in cozy sweaters, jump into piles of leaves, carve pumpkins and go on fall walks! Fall is aweseome.

fall photography

Sorry, too soon to talk about autumn? Let's get back to those tomatoes.

fresh tomato marinara sauce

Want to know something funny? Just the other day I was picking some of these gorgeous beauties, and as I was reaching into the jungle of vines my arm grazed the plant at the front of the garden, causing at least 5 tomatoes to all fall off at the same time. How weird is that? My tomatoes have never fallen off the vines by themselves before.

Seriously. They're just crying to be used..pick me. Pick me! Sort of like my basil plant.

And...there's still more coming.

local summer tomatoes

Time to make a little somethin' somethin' with 'em.

Marinara 1.jpg

If you've never made your own marinara sauce before, then you're missing out. There's nothing better than fresh and homemade. Plus, it's one of the easiest things in the world to make. This smelt soooooo good while it was cooking. It was like bottling summer in a jar. So warm and robust. The whole house smelt like this all day. You can enjoy this fresh, store it in the fridge for a week, or freeze for a few months.

You could also easily can this and keep it stashed in your pantry for one of those gloomy overcast winter days when you need a bit of warmth from summer.

Marinara 4.jpg

Marinara Sauce (makes 3 cups)

(adapted from the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2)

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Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 large yellow onion, diced
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 heaping Tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 1/2 cups fresh roma tomatoes, diced
  • 2 cups clean low sodium tomato sauce
  • 1 Tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

  1. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan or stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and red pepper flakes, and saute until onion is translucent.
  2. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1 minute longer.
  3. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and oregano. Bring to a low boil and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Using a hand-held immersion blender, blend sauce until desired smoothness. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve this with fresh with pasta, vegetables, fish or grains. It also makes an amazing pizza sauce.