A Painterly Approach to Tomato Sauce and Cooking in General

Of heirloom tomatoes, saws, gratitude, neighborhood smoking party (not what you're probably thinking),and Jen's home made tomato sauce for the lazy and/or distracted

  So I was riding the vacation bump a couple of days after our return from Iceland and Scotland.  It was a beautiful late summer morning and I was seriously appreciating my neighborhood, the greenery, the food, and the quirky people about.  As if on cue, my neighbor, Hans, showed up with a bunch of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from his garden and a Bjork CD.  I felt so friggin' grateful!  He has such a beautiful veggie garden.  He also makes really artful arrangements of old tools in his yard.  Like thus:

  All these layers of goodness inspired me; "I'm going to make sauce!"  But first a bike ride.  On the ride I ran into Duane and Betti and they gave me a zucchini from their garden and the idea to make a zucchini fritatta.   My veggie appreciation magnetized even more sauce ingredients later in the day when i stopped by my neighbor Brian's house to retrieve Ruby, who was hanging out with his triplets.  His wife Liz had gotten him a smoker for his birthday and he gave me some of his smoked tomatoes.  Oh sweet jeezus, this sauce is so ON.
  Brian is so jazzed about his smoker he's thinking of inviting neighbors over for regular smoking parties where we'll answer the question, "will it smoke?"  I'll have to admit I got swept up in the excitement and I hope to soon be smoking peaches, beets, and um, marshmallows.  I'll keep you posted.
  Anyhow, back to the sauce. I wanted to keep it simple and I just don't have the patience for recipes (I'm more of a painterly chef) so I just went with what I had; onion, garlic, tomatoes.  

   Step One: Caramelize your chopped onion.
       Great for the lazy and/or distracted chef because you want to stir minimally whilst caramelizing.  The sugars in the onion sink to the bottom and create that lovely caramel effect.  If you happen to have some peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini to add, do it when your onions are almost caramelized.

   Step Two:  Put in as much chopped garlic as you like.  I put in 4 cloves. You actually need to focus at this point in time as garlic can burn fast.  Keep it movin'.

   Step Three:  Throw in your chopped tomatoes, salt, and preferably fresh ground pepper.  Also if you happened to open up a beer that tasted like crap to you because it was way too sweet, throw the other half of the beer in there like I did.  Wine is good too. Herbs are good.  And let's not forget the smoked tomatoes if you're lucky enough to have some.

Tomatoes about to be cooked down

  Then you just let it cook down. There will be no blanching, peeling, straining or the like. This isn't that kind of sauce.  Ain't nobody got time for that. Plus I like the flavor that the skins and seeds impart.  
  Cooking it down can take awhile.  I have no idea how long, an hour?  It depends on how many tomatoes you started with. I was able to check my emails, listen to a podcast, keep an ear and eye on the small hoard of kids playing in my backyard, and kick out an easy zucchini frittata.

Zucchini frittata with awesome sauce

   So just cook it down until it's the consistency you like. You will not believe how much the flavor deepens and intensifies.  Especially if you use sweet home grown tomatoes.  And, oh my gawd, the smoked tomatoes took it to whole new level. I only needed about half the sauce so the rest will be going on a G.F. pizza tonight.  The only downfall is that it will ruin you for store bought sauce FOREVER.