red wine tomato sauce

I’ve got a ridiculous amount of tomatoes from my garden this summer, and I’ve been searching for things to do with them. I’ve always wanted to try making tomato sauce from scratch, so this was a great time. Homemade tomato sauce is surprisingly easy to make, the only difficult/annoying part is getting the skin off the tomatoes.

Fresh Garden Tomatoes

Ingredients

  • 10-15 tomatoes (I used beefsteak, roma, and plum)
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 white onion
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil
  • 1/2 cup of red wine (I used Fenn Valley Capriccio)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Step 1

Boil the tomatoes for a few minutes until the skin starts to peel. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. If you’re patient, wait til the tomatoes cool a bit before starting to peel off the skin. I just dove right in and ended up with hot fingers.

Boiling Tomatoes

Skinless Tomatoes

Step 2

In a second pot, add the olive oil and saute the chopped garlic and onions until translucent.

Onion and garlic

Step 3

Add in the chopped tomatoes (now skinless), red wine, brown sugar, chopped basil, and salt and pepper to taste to the onions and garlic. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and simmer for two hours. Serve immediately over pasta, or you can freeze for up to three months for use later.

Chopped tomatoes simmering

Add fresh basil and red wine

Simmering red wine tomato sauce

Red wine tomato sauce from scratch