Homemade Tomato Sauce

Last night I was feeling particularly inspired so after 50 minutes of pilates I walked to the wine shop and bought a bottle of dry white wine, a Chardonnay from Chile. The wine was mostly for cooking but some sipping did occur as well. But the true inspiration for my purchase were my ripe heirloom tomatoes. What to do with 3 pounds of tomatoes? Make tomato sauce!

I put pandora on in the background, poured a glass of wine and got to work.

1st up peeling-boil 2 quarts of water, place tomatoes in and allow water to return to a boil. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and immediately place in ice water. Tomatoes are ready to peel with your fingers.

I cut the tomatoes in eighths, next I think I would cut into smaller chunks, and set aside.

Next I chopped one large green pepper, one large onion, and 2 garlic gloves. I threw them into a sauce pan with a tablespoon of heated olive oil and cooked until the onion was beginning to brown.

Then in went the tomatoes, 1 cup of wine, about 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil, and 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano.

I brought the mixture to a boil on high heat, then turned the heat to low, covered the pot and allowed to simmer for 1 hour.

To the final product I added salt and pepper, and will probably go back and add some cayenne tonight when I reheat because I like my food with a kick.

A friend is coming over for dinner tonight to test out the sauce, I'm pretty proud and hope she enjoys.

On a side and random note, as I was writing cayenne I was thinking it would be an interesting name for kid, what do you think? My mom actually wanted to name me Cinnamon, but thankfully my father talked her out of that one! I often bring that fact up to friends, I mean my name would have been Cinnamon Bowles, that well, would have been interesting. Just last week my mom texted "I wonder if you would be going for your PhD if your name had been Cinnamon." One never knows, but I could easily think of some other professions where one might find a few Cinnamon's.

Nicole