As promised....a recipe for basic (from scratch) tomato sauce

Home made tomato sauce is better than anything from a jar or can!

Ingredients

Roma tomatoes and the sauce

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, 1/4-inch dice
• 4 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
• 1/2 medium carrot, finely grated
• a pound of peeled tomatoes, roma preferred but others are good too. What do you have available? It's all good! (How do you peel a tomato? Answers to follow)
• No time to peel tomatoes or don't have any? 2 large cans of peeled tomatoes are (almost) as good.
• Salt 

Directions

Peeling tomatoes (via blanching):

Bring a pot of water to slow boil. Add a 1/2 tsp salt. Drop 2-3 tomatoes at a time into the water. Use a chinese basket or slotted spoon. Use the spoon to put into the water so you don't get splashed. Wait about a minute. Pick up the tomatoes and drop them into ice water. Repeat with more tomatoes. Add ice as the water warms up. When all tomatoes are done, the skin should easily slip off. Piece of cake! Put the skins in your worm bin or compost pile. The little worms love them!

Peeling tomatoes (via roasting)

Cut all the tomatoes in half and take out the stem core. Place all the tomatoes sliced side up on a baking sheet. Add some whole cloves of garlic (2-3) salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil. You can add your carrots now too. They are really good roasted for your sauce. Turn the tomatoes over, skin side up. Roast at 350 degrees for about 45 min. Take out of the oven and let it cool. After cooled, the tomato halves will slip right out of their skins. Again - compost the skins.

The sauce:

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer

Obviously, if you roasted your tomatoes, carrots and garlic you'd add them all together

Some things to add: More carrots, peppers, fresh basil, mushrooms, red wine, roast before turning into sauce, use your imagination! Enjoy! It's not rocket science----you're feeding your family! It's all good!