Best Fresh Tomato Sauce

 

'Knowledge they say is knowing a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.'

Miles Kington

There is no taste of late summer better than a tom picked from the plant and eaten whilst in your garden, every tomato is an adventure and my crop this year has revealed some super flavours; the yellow ones above are 'olka polka' and lovely, but best are some cherry toms named 'sweet million', these varieties I'll grow forever.

So couch tomato? How to make the best Italian style tomato sauce ever, and I mean ever, so in a generous glug of hot olive oil, throw in some sliced garlic and don't allow to colour, but fry a little bit and then throw in some basil with it's stalk too, another minute. Whilst prepping your freshly picked toms by taking the top of the stalk bit out of large ones, these stalks are called 'primordial', wow big word there.. Anyway chop the toms up a bit and lob in. Allow to simmer away until they all break down, season.

Then push the sauce through a strainer to remove the skins and basil, return to the pan and simmer to reduce a little bit. Add this sauce to whatever you are making and you'll taste the difference. 

'Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What would life be like without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes.'

John Denver

An Italian chef in Rome once told me that a true Italian sauce has garlic or onion but never both. So I used this sauce whilst making Aubergine Parmigiana, recipe see elsewhere on this blog, and the results were superior.