Sauce from Scratch

The tomatoes are starting to ripen.  Now normally, I would be lamenting all the work required to turn them, along with the peppers and onions, into marinara sauce because this would be my "getting ready for the new school year" time.  And once school work starts, gardening has always  been shifted to the bottom of the "to-do" list.  Not this year!  Bring on those tomatoes!  I'm really looking forward to fall in my gardens.  I've got the time; I've got the interest, so let's just see what can be harvested and produced!

Today I made my first batch of marinara sauce.  All day the pot of onions, peppers (both green and red), tomatoes and basil have been simmering on the stove.  The whole house smells wonderful.  It's a rewarding feeling to know that the onions, tomatoes and basil were all grown from seed.  Yes, I had to buy a few peppers from the farmers' market; our pepper plants look lush and full, but have only a few small peppers.  Don't know why...  Anyway, my sauce also has a few more seasonings including garlic, oregano, and red wine.  It's great stuff!

I even roasted 4 red peppers to add to the sauce.  I toasted them under the broiler to char the outer skin.  It worked well, but next time I think I'll try using the outdoor gas grill.  After the skins are charred and the peppers rest in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, the skins slip right off.  Remove the seeds, chop them up, and into the sauce they go. Yum!

I haven't quite decided if I will can or freeze this batch of sauce.  I've done both in the past.  Freezing is easier, but I think the quality is just a tad better when it's canned.  I think I'll use both methods this year for the ultimate comparison.  This might be a freezer batch just because it's now late in the day and I'm getting a little tired.  Like I said, freezing is the easier, quicker method.