KATHLEEN CORBIN

Last year our tomato plants were prolific producers. I never thought I could have too many tomatoes but….OH BOY! We ate tomatoes everyday, we gave them away to friends and neighbors, and still we had more. Since I don’t like wasting food and I don’t do any canning of tomatoes, something had to be done.

After a little research, I found the best way to handle an over-abundance of tomatoes. FREEZE THEM! Just rinse, dry, and core and put them in a container in the freezer. No need to peel them either. I freeze them in 4 lb. quantities since that’s how much I use for my fabulous spaghetti sauce. Try to remove as much air from the bag as possible.

When you are ready to make your sauce take your 4 lb. bag of tomatoes out of the freezer. Dunk them in hot water and the skin peels right off. I’m sure there are creative ways to use the tomato skins but we just compost them at this point. Let the tomatoes thaw and then break them up into small pieces. You are now ready to cook your sauce.

Here is my favorite spaghetti sauce from scratch

• 4 lb of fresh/frozen tomatoes chopped or pureed in blender
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 sweet yellow onion chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2-3 carrots peeled and sliced
• 1 small green pepper chopped
• 5-6 mushrooms sliced
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt (optional)
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 5-6 plant based meatballs (We like Impossible Meatballs)

Place olive oil in large sauce pan. Saute onions and garlic. Add all other ingredients except for the meatballs. Simmer until sauce thickens. It may take 2-3 hours to thicken as the tomatoes are full of water.

Cook the meatballs in a skillet and set aside in the fridge. Five minutes before serving the sauce add the meatballs and simmer another 5 minutes until the meatballs are warm.

Sometimes, I saute a little fresh spinach and top off the plate of spaghetti with nutritious greens. I actually add spinach to just about everything!

Frozen tomatoes are not good for anything but cooking as the texture changes when they are frozen.

(If you want your sauce to cook faster…..drain the water from your tomatoes. As the tomatoes thaw, they generate a lot of water. As you chop them up, they generate even more water. Drain all the water before adding the tomatoes to the pot and you will have delicious sauce quickly. However, if I make my sauce in this way, I steam the vegetables first until they are soft.) You can also add a dollop of tomatoe paste if you like.