This weekend I decided that my cherry tomato plants on the deck had truly outdone themselves all summer long and were deserved of a rest. The poor things were still bearing fruit, but the leaves had long since given up due to cool nighttime temperatures. It was time.

Last week I had harvested a large amount, and this week there was yet again another bowlful waiting to be picked. My Roma tomatoes out in the garden had finally kicked into gear (once the chippies and squirrels left the green fruit on long enough to ripen!) and they were added to the stash. Before I left them too long, I decided to just go ahead and make a tomato sauce wth them.

I first chopped the cherry tomatoes in half; the Romas into chunks.

My large 4-cup measuring glass runneth over!

After sautéing some onion and garlic in olive oil, in went the tomatoes and some fresh thyme from the garden.

After cooking for about half an hour the tomatoes have released their juice and are free of their skin. Perfect!

Time to run the mixture through the food mill to get rid of the skins and most of the tiny seeds.

Et voilà!—a lovely thick sauce ready to become the base for ... something. From 5+ cups of chopped tomatoes I got about 2.75 cups of sauce.

Maybe this one: Tagliatella with Bacon Sauce; or Rigatoni with Tomatoes and Vodka. Or perhaps just simply to top some of the delicious fresh ravioli that we can get locally. Yum, I’m making myself hungry. Won’t you join me for dinner?

Note: We opted for the Tagliatella with Bacon Sauce, but used penne instead of the tagliatella. We always use Canadian bacon as the “lean, non-smoked bacon” it calls for in the recipe. It was delicious!

Yum! I have a weakness for pasta.
Canadian bacon, is there another kind of bacon???
Did you know that here we just call it back bacon.
When I hear the phrase Canadian bacon I always think of Bob & Doug McKenzie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Doug_McKenzieor Michael Moore’s slapstick political farce “Canadian Bacon” which is silly and sometimes even funny. http://www.michaelmoore.com/dogeatdogfilms/canadian.html

Paula, yes I know! But don’t you feel pleased that the Americans named it after you?

honestly, I have SO been thinking about doing this (not that I have a garden—yours sounds lovely) but buy up tons of end of summer tomatoes and make buckets of sauce and then freeze it in batches so come winter I can make it into whatever—with FRESH summer taste!  Um—you’ve inspired me to really go through with it.

oh yum, i’d love to join you.

It looks heavenly!