Saucing Tomatoes

As a gardener, I enjoy growing tomatoes and I grow about a dozen plants a year. As an eater, though, I've only recently come around on them... as long as they're de-seeded and tucked away inside a sandwich or grinder/sub. It may sound a little weird, but there it is. Usually, I keep a stock of nice slicers for those in the family who do like tomatoes, but my real motive for growing them is for saucing. And so, here is my process:

Pick and wash the tomatoes, checking for freshness and firmness. Don't use any that show signs of widespread insect damage, over-ripeness or other problem. The one shown in my hand here is my garden's biggest this year.

Slice them up (halve the Romas, quarter the Celebrities, and make several cuts into Beefstakes or Big Boys) and remove the seeds into a container headed for the compost. I also cut away any unseemly sections. And while I used to use a corer to make a V cone cut to take out the white section where the stem leads into the fruit, it doesn't really matter for saucing.

Put the sliced, de-seeded tomatoes, along with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan (the rest of the water shown comes out of the tomatoes) on the stove until boiling for about 5 minutes. Then I usually let them cool for upwards of a half-hour so milling them won't get too hot.

Drain as much water from the pot as possible. Get a sufficiently-sized bowl to catch the sauce and place the food mill on it, using the pronged feet to perch it securely. Then, using a sieved ladle, transfer a workable amount of the stewed, cooled tomatoes into the food mill. Work away turning the gear clockwise and counterclockwise (there's the saucing direction and the unclogging pulp direction) to produce sauce until there's only mostly dry pulp left. You shouldn't go overboard on getting every last drop of sauce or you'll be there a while and expend quite a bit of energy. Keep ladling in the stewed tomatoes until finished, getting rid of pulp in the same container as the seeds and cut-away parts as necessary to keep the food mill from spilling over.

You're left with a bowl of tomato sauce. It can tend to be a little watery, so it's a good idea to either boil it down a bit before using in recipes or add some tomato paste as a thickening agent. At this point, before covering the bowl with some plastic wrap and putting it in the refrigerator, I add about a tablespoon of a good kosher salt or sea salt as a preservative. The sauce will keep upwards of a week in my experience, but I can't speak to the longevity of freshness or when it starts to get fungus because it's never lasted long enough for me to discover how long that takes.

This process supplements my tomato sauce use during the summer months. At all other times of the year, I use Hunt's plain tomato sauce on pizza, pasta, etc. and season to taste with oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, black pepper and sea salt.