Clean Pasta/Pizza Sauce

As I read more about food and how it's processed and packaged, it made me think about freezing tomatoes or even freezing a big batch of clean homemade pasta or pizza sauce.  It is recommended to purchase tomatoes in jars because the plastic seal on the inside of cans is made of a chemical (BPA) that leaks into the tomatoes because of the acid in the tomatoes. Where can you find tomatoes in jars at a grocery store?  I have not come across any.  My friend Carol Iwaasa gave me a tip on blanching tomatoes and freezing them in quantities big enough for meals.  Here is an easy way to blanch tomatoes.  The skin slides right off.  At the end of this blog post is a recipe from The Gracious Pantry for clean homemade pizza sauce.  It is like a marinara and I have used it for pasta and pizza. 
 
Blanching

Bring a pot of water to boil and drop the tomatoes in.  Leave in the water for 90 seconds. 

 

 Transfer each tomato to ice water. The skin will slide right off. EASY!

Cut them up and freeze them.  When I make a sauce with them I like to core the tomatoes first. 


Clean Pizza/Pasta Sauce

(Makes approximately 6 cups)

Ingredients:

• 4 vine ripe tomatoes (about 4 cups chopped)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 shallot
• 1/4 cup fresh basil or 1 tbsp. dried
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, no sugar added, low sodium is best (optional)
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Blend together everything but the tomato sauce. Don’t blend for very long. You don’t want to make juice. This should be just slightly chunky.
2. Mix in the tomato sauce by stirring it in and pour half the batch over a large pizza.

Hope you enjoy your fabulous sauce.  My buddy Erica Terrace gave me a tip to add a tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar to your sauce to rich en it.  It is lovely. 

Follow along in all I say on grOundBlogdaYs.