How do I make tomato sauce from fresh (not canned) tomatoes?
Use vine ripened tomatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove. Drop the tomatoes in for about 10 seconds. This will loosen the peels. Peel the tomatoes and squeeze the juice through a strainer and remove the seeds. Remove the stems. Dice the tomatoes. Saute some chopped garlic and onions in olive oil and add this to the tomatoes. Put these ingredients (along with the juice) into a dutch oven with a little water. Place in a 300 F oven for about three hours. Stir occasionally. (Do not use a cast iron or aluminum dutch oven. These materials react with the acid in the tomatoes) Make a slurry with cornstarch and cold water. Thicken the sauce with the slurry if necessary. Season to taste with fresh chopped basil and salt. If the sauce tastes acidic then add a little granulated sugar at a time until this taste disappears. (1 tablespoon of cornstarch will thicken one cup of sauce. Guesstimate the amount of sauce you have and mix equal parts of cornstarch with cold water. Use a mixing
