What to do with fresh tomatoes....

The garden has been producing tomatoes lately! Almost more than we know what to do with. We've eaten tons and given a bunch away so I decided to start cooking with them. First I made the most obvious, salsa. Just tomatoes, onion, cilantro, salt and jalapeño and you've got a dip everyone loves. 

I should have just made a bunch of this and canned it because my next project was a waste of time. I decided to do some homemade spaghetti sauce. Now, it turned out to be an absolutely delicious sauce but not worth the time put in when the other two in my house could take or leave spaghetti to begin with. 

First, you peel the tomatoes. To do this you have to boil them for 30 seconds In batches of 5 or 6. this was the most time consuming prep time. Once they were peeled I chopped them up using the food processor. 

Next, you sauté onion, basil and garlic in olive oil before adding the tomatoes

Then, simmer for about 4 hours

Well, this is what all of the recipes I found say to do when using fresh tomatoes but as you can see that does not look like spaghetti sauce. My effort was not going to waste though so I made a trip to the store for some tomato paste this morning. I added a can of that, some parsley and oregano and browned deer meat. 

Now, 8 hours of cooking time later, I have a sauce that rivals the $2 can you can buy at Walmart. Ha! I think I'll stick with salsa. But I am looking forward to dinner.