Tomatoes!

If it's August, it's tomato time. I didn't go crazy this year in the garden -- I planted three Beefsteak tomato plants, and acquired two patio plants, one of which withered up and died. The CSA provides us with plenty of cherry tomatoes.

I picked up six pounds of Roma tomatoes this weekend at a local farm store. The tomatoes were marked "seconds," but there was nothing wrong with them. Over the past few days I've been making tomato sauce and canning it for the winter. The jars you see above also include some green peppers, garlic, and onion we got from our CSA. The liberal amount of basil is from my herb garden.

The sauce is easy, although I do use a pressure cooker to make the job go faster. Peel, seed and dice three pounds of tomatoes. Saute a few cloves of garlic and two medium chopped onions in olive oil till soft and translucent. Add tomatoes, 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tbsp. tomato paste, and a handful of basil leaves. Bring to a boil; lock top on canner and bring to the second ring (highest pressure). Cook for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let pressure drop naturally.

When you open the pressure cooker, the sauce may be watery, depending on the type of tomatoes you use, so you'll have to cook till you get the desired consistency. You can use the sauce immediately, or can, while hot. I put in tablespoon or two of bottled lemon juice into each pint jar before canning -- this raises the acid level of the tomatos to lessen the chance of spoilage. Can as usual. When I open the cans, I'll jazz up the sauce with a bit of sugar, oregano, more basil, etc. The sauce can also be used for pizzas.