Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Using Garden Fresh Tomatoes

I know fall is just around the corner, but our garden is pushing forth with some plentiful end of the season harvests. Do you remember earlier in the season when I told you that we had more tomato plants than we could fit in our garden? Well, Dave had planted the extras in whatever containers and buckets he could find and kept them on our deck. Guess what? They did amazingly well and have produced tomatoes all season, but when we returned from vacation they were literally overflowing with ripe fruit! My daughter and I tried to photograph the plants from several angles, but we couldn't get a picture that would adequately capture just how many ripe tomatoes these plants produced with this last yield, so here is a close up of what just one of the plants produced...

Crazy right? The tomatoes were small in size but luscious tasting. Here is what I picked from just the plants on the deck yesterday (and there are still some on the plants that aren't quite ripe yet)...

 

The plants in the garden also produced some of these smaller sized tomatoes, but the brandywine plants graced us with some large ones that filled the palm of your hand..

We've shared our bounty with neighbors, family and friends, but we still have a tremendous amount of tomatoes sitting in baskets on our counter and more that are ripening in the garden. Oh, and did I mention that our herb garden was overflowing as well, especially the basil? This photo was snapped several weeks ago, and the plants are even taller now, almost reaching my daughter's shoulders.

We made tons of garden salads, caprese salads, tomato sandwiches and BLT's, yet still piles of tomatoes and herbs remained. So, we decided to search for a sauce recipe to make. Most of the recipes we found on line however, used canned tomatoes and dried spices, and we wanted to use the plethora of fresh produce and herbs we had on hand before they rotted. We ultimately chose to modify the recipe we found HERE.  They had  a green pepper listed as an optional ingredient, but since we had some of those ripe in our garden as well, we decided to add one to our sauce, and it enhanced the flavor nicely. We also tossed in some fresh oregano, as we had an abundance of that too. We were so pleased with the end result, that I am making another batch today, and I thought I'd share our version of the recipe with you.

Garden Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
-Approximately 15 fresh tomatoes, peeled chopped and blended in a food processor
-6 cloves of minced garlic
-10 Tbsp of chopped fresh basil
-2 Tbsp of cholpped fresh oregano
-2 tsp black pepper
-1 Tbsp sugar
-2 Tbsp olive oil
-1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
 -1 green pepper finely chopped 

Instructions:
-Heat the oil in a  large pot over medium heat and add the minced garlic.
-Brown the garlic slightly, being careful not to burn it.
-Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, sugar and chopped green pepper, and bring to a boil, stiffing frequently.
-Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, stirring often.
-Cover the pot and continue to simmer for another 2 hours, stirring often.
-Add the grated cheese and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

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