Yesterday we finally had a break in the heat and I decided I couldn't delay baking and preserving any more. We had some early tomatoes, not enough to give to customers but enough to do up a batch of tomato sauce. This is my all time favorite tomato sauce recipe but I should be clear, I don't can this, I freeze it to make sure it is completely safe. Tomatoes are best canned without additives due to their acidity level though Animal Vegetable Miracle has a pretty great one that is safe to can. I did up 7 quarts of this last year but because I was using ground spices the end product was brown which the children didn't really dig. I like it anyway and will probably do a few more this year.

Here's the recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce

8 cups tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 cup onions
4 cloves garlic whole
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix together in shallow baking pan, and roast at 450 degrees for 35-40 minutes. As it cools mash with potato masher or fork and add 1/3 cup basil.

My goal is 12 freezer quarts of this sauce. Last year I only did 4 and it was such a treat eating it in winter. It tastes like summer! Actually this picture is from a winter dinner when I was really craving summer.

I also did up 4 quart bags (about 1 serving each) of pesto and baked some Good Brown Bread. It was a pretty sucessful day.