One of my very first goals in gardening was to be able to make homemade pasta sauce. Unfortunately, my first year of planting was hugely unsuccessful, barely giving me enough tomatoes to slice atop a couple of burgers. Well, this year I’ve gotten a little better at it. Not perfect, but better. The other day I harvested enough tomatoes, basil and oregano to make that first yummy batch of sauce!

My first harvest of tomatoes weren’t the best. They were a bunch of misfits really. Far from picture perfect.

It’s hard to get those perfect looking tomatoes down here in South Georgia. But that’s ok, I had just enough for dinner. I trimmed off the stems and rough bits but left the skins. Some recipes call for removing the skins but that sounded like a heck of a lot of work. Turns out it wasn’t necessary.

After doing my research into sauce, looking up several recipes on various websites, in the end I opted for the super simple method of roasting that first batch. I quartered the tomatoes, peeled a handful of garlic cloves, and cut up some onion. I arranged it all in a baking pan along with a good bit of fresh basil leaves and a little oregano. Then I drizzled on a generous amount of olive oil, sprinkled on some kosher salt and ground pepper, tossed it all together and popped it in the oven (375 degrees).

It wasn’t long before the whole house smelled like a scene out of ‘The Godfather’. After about an hour of roasting I pulled the pan out of the oven to discover those maters, onions, garlic and basil all caramelized and ready to become sauce! Yum yum.

From the pan my lovely roasted tomatoes went straight into the food processor. I pulsed them a few times to get the consistency I wanted, then I added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and gave it one more pulse.

Result – super easy and beautiful looking sauce! I poured the sauce into a small saucepan just to warm it up before ladling it over a bed of ziti noodles. There it was – dinner was served!

The sauce tasted delicious! Far better than what you get in a jar from the grocery store. Being so easy I’m sure this basic recipe can be added to with fresh peppers, zucchini, or meat to make a sauce of your liking. I’m looking forward to the continued experiments! Hopefully those green tomatoes in my garden will ripen soon. Otherwise I will get a chance to make another Georgia favorite – fried green tomatoes! Stay tuned…