I was looking for an easy first time homemade sauce recipe as well and this was pretty good. It was easy to follow and turned out very tasty. I just made this yesterday and added some salt, a bit more garlic and about 10 dashes of hot sauce to give it a kick as well. I added the salt at the 2 hour mark. The next time I make it I will puree it to hide some of the veggies to trick my kids who are used to smooth jar sauce.
I made this for Christmas dinner to serve with stuffed shells. So delicious! I used two 28oz cans of whole tomatoes instead of fresh ones to lessen the work load. Next time I will try from scratch. The fresh veggies made it so yummy and healthy. I used five cloves of garlic and cut out the butter. I also increased the italian seasoning to one tspn. and added a 1/2 tspn. of sugar. I also added a tspn of salt at the two hour point and pureed the entire batch at the very end. Big hit!
I made this yesterday with fresh tomatoes from my garden. I really didn't care for it. It wasn't full-bodied, but kind of watery tasting. I didn't add the burgandy wine...maybe that made the difference?
This was really good but I prefer a little sweeter sauce than this recipe produced. I added about 1/8 cup of sugar during the last 2 hours of cooking.
Absolutely amazing, and so simple to make. Like a few others on here, I pureed all of the tomatoes (I don't like chunky sauce.) I also omitted the burgandy wine, using wine and garlic seasoning instead. I will never use another tomatos sauce recipe again!
I'm sorry to say this - but I followed the directions to the letter. It was too watery (after de-seeding etc) and was very tasteless. I followed all directions, used fresh basil etc. I was so upset to spend so much time on this and I ended up mixing it with jarred it was so bland and m'eh. :(
I have a garden full of so many tomatoes I didn't know what to do with them all. I have been giving them away at an amazing rate. Still I needed something to do with all the rest. I found this recipe and have used it several times now. I love the carrots in it and the burgundy wine gives it a great flavor. I add 1 pound each, browned hamburger, browned hot italian sausage at the 2 hour time. My family loves this sauce over spagetti noodles.
This is a great sauce especially when you have excess tomatoes in your garden. I used it only as a guide and added extra spices. I agree with others that you need to blend all the ingredients at the half way point. I also added extra spices, salt & pepper when I added the tomato paste. I have made this 3 times now and will continue to use this recipe, but as a guide only. I didn't use carrots but did use courgettes and mushrooms - this is where blending is a good idea.
This was my first time making sauce from scratch. I added oregano and thyme also, omitted the celery and added mushrooms and extra salt and pepper towards the end. Fantastic!
This recipe was just what I was looking for! A great way to use up your summer harvest as some others have stated. I like my sauce a little thick, so I took the advice of another reviewer an left the lid off for the last two hours. Also - don't make the mistake I did and overcook the tomatoes in the beginning. It will make it extremely difficult to seed and peel the tomatoes.
Nice recipe but the fun is adding the extras at the end like pesto, parmesan, fresh chopped basil etc! Beef! Turkey! Sausages. Its always good to refer to a base recipe like this. My husband ate it all week and thinks I took cooking lessons! I'll take it! :) Thanks!
very tasty sauce, I have many carrots to use up this year and will use this recipe to can up my tomatoes this year. I did a trial run and used the sauce in lasagna-family loved it
I had so many tomatoes in my garden I had to find something to do with them. This recipe is simple and delicious! My family said it was the best I ever made! I added a little crushed red pepper for some zing and ground beef too!
I made two batches of this sauce on two different occasions. Both turned out excellent - with rave reviews from the family. I won't go back to store bought sauce. In the second batch I added in some hot peppers from the garden and it added some 'zing' to the sauce. I also added in 2 tbsp of brown sugar to the second batch (approximately 10 cups of sauce) - really added nicely to the sauce. I used it to make lasagna the next night. Wow!!
This was really good but had to guess on tomato count. I used a variety of tomatos out of my garden and doubled the recipe. I aslo added red pepper flakes for a kick. This takes a long time but is worth it to use up the crop. I will make again next year!
Made exactly as the recipe called for and LOVED it. The flavor was wonderful and didnt need anything additional added to it. This is a keeper! Thank you!
I thought this recipe was fantastic. It was definitely time consuming, but worth it if you can use tomatoes from your garden. I had one lone tomato that wasn't popping or starting to peel but my advice is to pull it anyway from the pot. When I finally pulled it, it was so mushy and gave me very little fruit out of it, that I was bummed b/c it was the largest tomato from the batch. I also have a bag of jalapeno powder from Hatch, NM. I added a pinch b/c it gives anything just a little pop when I am looking for flavor. :-)
We grew a lot of tomatoes this year and used this recipe to use up the ones that were overripe. It was delicious! We poured it over chicken breasts and topped with mozzarella. We also ate it over pasta. As always, we left out the sugar entirely and alternated the veggies we put in it, using zucchini and summer squash instead of the peppers. Scrumptious!
Just made this today, and canned it for future use. It is so good. The only thing I left out was the bell pepper, but that is because my husband does not care for it. I would have loved to added it.
I loved this recipe..made one batch last week and I'm about to do the same..I added alot of fresh vegetables due to the abundance of them from the garden..I guess I just used this recipe for a base and went from there..the x in the tomato bottom Made it very easy to peel..I also cooked all the veggies and the pureeed them in so my kids don't know!! Mushrooms..peppers..carrots..eggplant..it's all in there and they will never know..I also used all fresh herbs..made a great flavor!!
Hearty and worth the effort. Multiplied the recipe by 4 times and it came out fantastic. The only thing I did different was add a 1/4 cup of fresh Parmesan per batch, wow this is great stuff.
This was excellent. I used tomatoes from our garden, so it tasted incredibly sweet and fresh. I left out the wine and added a little salt and pepper and it was just wonderful. I also pureed all the veggies so it was more kid friendly. I'm going to use all our extra tomatoes to make batches to freeze for over the winter. Thanks for sharing!
This sauce was very good, however it needed a little more flaver so I added extra green bell peppers and crushed red peppers...yummy!
It's a good basic tomato sauce. I didn't use the wine, puréed the veggies w/ the tomatoes (wouldn't want my boys to know that there's veggies in red sauce. Gasp!), and let it bubble in my crockpot all day. It's easy to set and forget after the initial prep. :-)
I loved this because there's no sugar and it tastes great! My husband hates red sauce but he loved this.
The recipe was a little bland for my tastes maybe because i didn't add wine... I suggest adding more tomatoes than the recipe calls for as they reduce to almost nothing. I cooked it for 3 hours
Great starter and then add your own preferences. I'm only 3 hours in cooking and can't stop tasting it. I did add more garlic, garlic salt, salt, pepper, some chicken bouillon granules, red pepper flakes, some sugar and hot italian sausage. Awesome... still tasting it on my lips. :)
This is an excellent recipe. I used a tomato press which saved time. I also added more tomato paste and a can of chicken broth or beef broth, also some parmesan cheese at the end.
really tasty..did not put the tomato paste and just let simmer a bit longer to thicken.the wine was a great addition to the flavor!!
I felt this completely lacked in flavor....was NOT worth the time and effort at ALL
This was my first attempt at homemade tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes from my garden. It was definitely good for my first attempt. I took another reviewer's advice and blended the carrots instead of just taking them out altogether. That gave it an unique flavor, but next time will try it leaving the carrots out.
Made this for the first time this morning. The best tomato sauce ever. I am going to freeze the remainder if it is not all eaten tonight. Very good way to use up all the extra tomatoes out of my lovely garden. All the tomatoes I used were Celebrity Tomatoes. Also used my Bell Peppers, Onions and basil fresh out of my garden.. :)
This is really good. Some advice I have is that you seem to need more than the 10 tomatoes recommended. I was lucky enough to have some cans of diced tomatoes to help even out the proportions. You also need to run some of the sauce through the blender or it will be all chunks. I cooked it the entire time with no lid because it was so soupy. I also added salt and pepper, which I think boosted the taste.
Good for a basic sauce, but definitely needs something. I tripled the recipe as I had a lot of tomatoes and I think that must have scewed the ingredient proportions as it turned out very bland. But with everything.. taste test, and add as you please!
Great recipe! I modified just a little, adding some fresh chives and parsley from my garden (in addition to fresh basil). Also omitted the celery and added red pepper flakes as my family likes heat. Everyone in my family gave it a thumbs up.
This is an excellent recipe. This was my first time making sauce from scratch and it was easy. I used green, red and orange peppers, onions, carrots and loads of spices. I also added a jar of tomato sauce and have plenty left over to freeze. I cooked the veggies and then pureed them along with the tomatoes and the sauce turned out perfectly.
This is the first time I've made sauce from tomatoes from my garden. I agree with other reviewers that not specifying the size of tomato or how many pounds made for an educated guess. The sauce is more on the orange side due to the carrots, but I like the thickness and consistency of the sauce. A very good base with the basic ingredients, I added more of the spices, some sugar to offset the tomato paste, and mushrooms. I had to use tomatoes that I defrosted from the last harvest, so it was hard to tell what size they were or even what type. I had at least 3 types of tomatoes in the garden this year, and they were all frozen together. I also had difficulty removing the seeds because of the consistency of the tomatoes after defrosting Maybe puree then run through strainer? Looking forward to adding meatballs and freezing some for later.
This recipe is fantastic and worth the extra work. After the initial cooking of the sauce, we added a bit of cooked chicken and Italian sausage and served with bowtie pasta. Just wow is all we can say!
Definitely too many vegetables. I used half of all the veggies except tomatoes and carrots. I should have halved the carrots also. The sauce is orange and tastes like carrots. I had to add a 15 ounce can of tomato sauce to cut the carrot taste and salt. Very bland. Not sure if I'd try this particular one again.
tasty tomato sauce however, i think i'll leave out the carrots next time cuz my sauce came out a lot sweeter tasting than i wanted it to be
Great! Needed alot of salt, but i followed the reviews and added about 1 1/2 tbsp at the 2 hr mark. Added 2 more tbsp of red wine and left out the bay leaf and celery. Great with meatballs and pasta!
This is a great basic recipe. I made it again with more spices, and was very happy with the result. This works nicely with Roma tomatoes. I hate peeling tomatoes, so I skipped that step and threw everything in the blender at the end- worked perfectly. I agree with other reviewers that the recipe is rather small, but I thought it was worth it.
Turned out better than I expected. The colour was a bit more orange than red but not off putting. I scaled down the recipe without a problem. As with the concerns other have had about the seasonings - just season to taste. The type of tomato used will depend on the taste of the sauce. I did puree the sauce because I have a veg phobic 4yr old. No problems at all and he ate every last drop of sauce on his plate.
As the recipe stands I have to give it 3 stars. I found it took a lot longer to thicken than 2 hours and I added more spice to flavour the sauce. Good base...season to taste.
I was suprised it was so simple to make. This was my 1st try at making homemade sauce. Delicious! A great way to use those harvested veggies from your garden. It freezes well too.
Good recipe. Only thing I did different was I used a Victoria strainer to do my tomatoes. I then put all the pulp and juice in a zippered pillow cloth and hang it to drain for several hours. Believe it or not the only thing that drains out is a greenish tinted water. Cuts cooking time in half.
I followed Patricia's lead except I forgot the Black Pepper. Best darn sauce I ever made. I canned it for a later meal. Those that have tasted it want me to make them some. Thank's Patricia.
This sauce is a wonderful base for pasta sauce. I followed the recipe, but had to add salt, garlic powder, and more wine to jazz up the flavor. I added the rind of some Parmesan cheese and used a whole small can of paste as I used a few more tomatoes than 10. I love the flavor and the smell in my house is wonderful. I will make this sauce again as it is so delicious and full of possibilities. Thanks for the recipe!
In addition to my previous review, I dehydrated 4 cups of the sauce until it was the consistency of a fruit roll up. This made a very interesting gift for a visiting friend who is on a low sodium diet and is travelling by air. Folded and sealed in bags, there's no worry of a bottle breaking and sauce leaking during the flight.
Terrific if you want a sauce with an italian type spice mix. I wanted a sauce that I could use to make enchilada sauce and tomato soup. The flavors were too italian. Very icky. Once I discovered that, I left the sauce in the freezer until I was making italian. Terrific as it was other than that.
This tasted very good but it was really watery. Maybe it was something I did wrong. My family did like the flavor though.
This was really delicious sauce. I was low on time, so I simmered it for an hour, added homemade meatballs (that had been browned), and let them cook in the simmering sauce for 2 hours. I added about 2 tsp sugar and about 4 tsp. mixed salt.
It's the second year for this recipe. Used 35, 3/4 to 1# Big Boy Tomatoes. Chopped 3 Jalepeno peppers for a little kick. 1 tbl. salt, 1 tbl. oregano. Second simmer was 4 hrs., uncovered, to get thickened. Produced 36, 4oz. servings. Great!
I would give this 10 stars if I could!! This was the best sauce we've ever had. It was so goooood! So light, so fresh and pure and so healthy! My husband loved it so much that he wants me to make more and take it to our local farmer's market to sell. Then he began talking about how rich we were going to become after selling this wonderful sauce! I think it's safe to say it propelled him into another dimension. I used a variety of approx. 20 ripe tomatoes from our garden: roma, early boy, beefsteak and grape tomatoes. I didn't have any burgundy, so I used Merlot. I didn't use the tomato paste to thicken. Instead, I uncovered the sauce after 2 hours and simmer, simmer, simmer...for a total of 8-9 hours. Then I put the sauce into 2 quart glass jars and into the refrigerator for 2 days to allow the flavors to meld. Wow! The flavor was terrific! My first use of this sauce was an arrabiata version because I added red pepper flakes for a bit of heat. Chorizo sausage, green pepper, Vidalia onion, mushroom, minced garlic and tri-color penne pasta with this wonderful sauce. I'm going to take advantage of the season at hand and get a bushel of tomatoes and jar/water bath this sauce. It will be nice to have the taste of Summer in the middle of Winter. This will be my go-to sauce from now on.
It was my first time trying sauce from scratch. I added meat to the sauce which was very good. It wasn't as tangy as I would have liked but I would definately try it again.
It does take time but is excellent. I added oregano and garlic salt to taste.
This was a good place to start for making homemade sauce with all my garden tomatoes. I used extra seasonings, including a dash of red hot pepper flakes, parsley and salt. I also used an entire small can of tomato paste since I like my sauce a little thicker and omitted the butter. It does take time to make but it is so refreshing to have a nice, garden fresh sauce!
What a Great recipe! I am eating it right now for lunch. We had an abundance of Tomatoes and Peppers this year and I figured I would try making sauce to can. I didn't need to add the tomato paste, my tomatoes were very meaty and after the 2 hour I added more oregano, thyme and Marjoram. I also kept the celery stock in -I used the heart of the celery so it would not be so dominate. Thanks so much for this great recipe!!!
This is a very good BASIC tomato sauce recipe. However if you follow it exactly, you will end up with a very basic and bland sauce. I use this recipe as a base, then add vinegar, sugar, worchestershire sauce, salt, and peppers to taste until it pops.
This was incredible -- very good. Made exactly per recipe and it was a hit with the whole family. Thank you!
Excellent recipe that I have used both with the garden harvest and in the interim with canned crushed tomatoes. I usually use baby carrots and pull them out with the celery and bay leaf. I don't know if it makes any difference but it always comes out great! We usually freeze some for later as well.
Made this recipe today...I agree with many that it is a "good base recipe"....as written...it comes out very bland. I used black pepper, thyme, additional basil, and additional Italian Seasoning to make it taste great. One great variable is the type of Tomatoes you may be using.....I am using Southern Tomatoes....Big Boys...and Better Boys...I used no sugar. I also added at least a tablespoon of salt. If you "play with it"....I am sure you can make it work for you.
I added some crushed reds to give it a little kick, other than that, I followed the recipe. Your description as a "rich, flavorful sauce" is perfect. This is a keeper!
this was my first attempt at making my own tomato sauce, and it came out great!! I did not use carrots or celery. I kind of tweaked it a little and added more wine, garlic and more herbs than the recipe called for and I didn't cook it for 4 hours either, I only cooked this for 2 hours and it was still good. I also added sausage for a little meatiness! I will make this again for sure!!
This is the best and I added a hot pepper to it and it really kicked it up a notch. Also, I didn't need the tomatoe paste as it was nice and thick. wonderful.
This is really very good. We used it as the tomato sauce base for a eggplant parmagiana dish. It worked like magic. Great recipe Gail.
Delicious, and a new staple recipe in my kitchen! I didn't change much except "eyeball" the ingredients and adjust accordingly since I used fresh local produce that isn't necessarily as big a size as the size of vegetables from the supermarket ("one" onion, "one" bell pepper, etc.). I used meaty paste tomatoes, which are typically smaller, so I used more than 10. Instead of a food processor, I used my granny's hand-cranked food mill which separated out the seeds nicely without much waste (but using a food mill is labor intensive). I found no need to add any extra sugar (tomatoes and onions are naturally sweet and carrots have been historically used as a sugar cane substitute in cooking). The sauce is flavorful enough on its own without added salt, but adding meat or grated cheese to the dish with this sauce will give a saltier flavor without ever having to reach for the salt shaker.
Overall this is a yummy sauce. I just think everyone has such different tastes when it comes to tomato sauce. There was a bit too much italian seasoning for me. I ended up adding more tomatoes to even it out a bit more. I also added sugar as we tend to like sweeter sauces. Making this one gave me a good base recipe and confidence to try some of my own alterations to tomato sauce though :)
i really do not like giving a recipe such critisism, but I did not care for this. first of all, WAY too much carrot!! the sauce was orange, not red. the carrots did not blend in-- and i shredded them instead of chopped them. the suace was extremely thick. it appeared to be dried out by the time it was finished cooking! then, on top of all the appearance problems, it tasted bland! if other eviewers had not mentioned adding salt, i wouldv'e totally forgot, and i think it would've tasted even more plain. i will keep searching for a tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes. i am sorry.
This took way too long to make. It was very thin, so I had to blend it to get it thicker. The flavor was terrible and didn't taste like tomato sauce at all.
Definitely not one of my fave sauces. I wanted to try out a different sauce recipe from my own (just to try something different) and picked this one because of the reviews. I made this exactly like the recipe... Disappointing, to say the least. Very bland and chunky! I had to put it in the food processor several times to try and get a creamy, velvety sauce. Just could not get that consistency. I blended it so much, the carrots made the sauce turn orange! My husband thought it was a Vodka sauce. We tried to add more seasoning after the 4 hours, but it was too late. You could probably use this recipe as a base to work with, but definitely add more seasoning!
This was my first time making tomato sauce. Having time on my hands and an abundance of tomatoes in the garden., I thought I'd give it a try. I followed the recipe as written until after the 2-hour mark. Then I added extra spices and herbs. It didn't make much but next year I'll plant more tomatoes!
My husband made this recipe for the first time today. The flavor is great with the exception that it needs more spices. He followed the recipe to the letter, did't and still doesn't know why the carrots, using the recipe scaler program on this site. We added salt and more fresh itialian spices. He was looking for a smooth tomatoe sauce for use later and this was much chunkier more like a pasta sauce. We took the sauce from the stove at the 2 hour mark, remove the bay leaves, and pureed it celery and all. The sauce turned an orange color like a vodika sauce and thickened up nicely. We will use this recipe in the future and see if back on the carrots will let it stay red. We used San Marsano tomatoes, and my husband put in marsalla instead of burgundy. Thanks to all who have commented and to the person who submitted this recipe.
This was my first homemade sauce. I didnt use green pepper. It was awesome. Everyone loves it.
I really appreciate this recipe. I definitely seasoned to taste (more salt and pepper, a tiny bit of sugar, more herbs). It cooked down beautifully. I did a small dice on my veggies, but still decided to do a quick whip with my stick blender at the end. Mine was pretty red too.
I loved this recipe and did add some extra salt for flavor. I also added some ketchup as I do to all spaghetti sauces as for some reason it adds this little kick that I love. The carrots add a nice sweetness too.
Wow... this sauce tastes incredible!!! I was skeptical when I started because it was just so tomatoey and runny at first. I doubled the recipe because I had more than 20 organic tomatoes from our CSA. Other than doubling, I followed the recipe completely with the exception of adding just a bit of red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and sugar. The one thing I wasn't crazy about was de-seeding the tomatoes because I felt like I lost too much. Next time I may de-seed and just run that stuff through the blender longer than the tomatoes.
This was my first time making sauce from scratch and it was AWESOME!! I added some homemade meatballs too. A big hit!
Never thought I'd say this, but this sauce is better than Mom's! You can use crushed bay leaves if you don't have a whole leaf, and you don't have to remove them, and the sauce will be fine. I halved the recipe because I only had that many ingredients, and it was amazing. Thanks for a lovely vegetarian sauce!
I have tried several times and each time comes out better. I make a big batch and save it for later use.
simple, basic and delicious--good starter for many recipes. added more fresh herbs before serving. anise was a nice addition
Great recipe: Changes I made: I didn't have burgundy wine but Pinot Noir is a perfect substitute. I made this for my lasagna and should have doubled the recipe to make enough sauce for it. If you're using it just for topping other things then the measurements are perfect. Other changes: 1. tripled the tomato paste, blended all the veggies (used green and red pepper) with the tomatoes instead of just chopping them, added a ton more seasoning: red pepper, all spice, basil, celery salt and pepper. It was amazing! yum!
Yes I made. This and it was the best tomato sauce that I made . I would double it to have more saved
I made just a few changes, red and green pepper and 1 fresh bay leaf from garden. will make again.
First time making with our fresh garden tomatoes, easy to follow recipe. Great tips to cross cut tomato, poke holes, and core. All peeled and de-seeded very easy. Will use for soup base and spaghetti sauce.
Delicious! I had over a dozen tomatoes become ripe all at once, so tried this recipe. The whole family commented how good the house smelled while this was simmering. They were even more impressed when I served this sauce over angel hair pasta with a bit of shaved Parmesan and fresh basil on top! This one is going into my favorites!
very delicious I used 14lbs of Roma tomatos fresh from my garden along with 2 jalapenos to give it a little kick my kids loved it