Tomato sauce, with fresh tomatoes

I finally collected enough big tomatoes to make a batch of fresh tomato sauce. From my very own garden.

As you might imagine, fresh tomato sauce tastes completely different from that stuff out of a jar. It's much lighter and much more subtle, and so it might taste bland at first (because it's not loaded up with salt and preservatives). But that light, subtle base will give you an excellent launchpad for fresh herbs and fresh pasta.

First, you'll need to peel and seed the tomatoes.

To do that, drop them into a pot of boiling water for 30-45 seconds or so. When the skin splits, like so:

Remove them with tongs into a bowl of cold water and let them cool down for a minute.

Then the skins will slip right off, no peeling required, just like a pair of pantyhose. (This method works great for peaches, too.)

After that, slice them into quarters, discard the core, and push out all the seeds and juice into a bowl, leaving the meat of the tomato. It'll look something like this when you're done:

Discard the seeds and skins. (And all the juice: this is a fairly messy process.)

After that, just chop the tomatoes and make your sauce.

I like to start with a base of shallots (milder than onions, so the tomato flavor really stands out) and garlic. Saute a chopped shallot and a few diced cloves of garlic in olive oil, then add the tomato chunks.

That's it. Just let that simmer on very low heat for a while. Right before serving, doctor it up with a bit of salt, and freshly chopped oregano and basil. Maybe some thyme. Season to taste.

Like summer in a bowl.