Basic Tomato Sauce

Every summer I have way more tomatoes than we can possibly use. I make them into tomatoe sauce.  I often put it into canning jars, or into freezer bags or containers containing enough for one meal and freeze it. You can easily double this if you have more tomatoes, and adjust seasonings to your familys taste.

12-18 Ripe tomatoes
1 zucchini (optional)
teaspoon of white or brown sugar
1 yellow onion, quartered
2-4 cloves garlic
sprigs of fresh basil and oregano, diced

Cut a shallow x  on the blossom end of each tomato. Dip Them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. You can then easily peel them.
Cut the peeled tomatoes into quarters and remove the seeds and jelly-put the seeds and jelly into a seive placed over a bowl.
Put the quartered tomatoes into a food proccessor (or a blender if you don't have a processor), add the onion, zucchini and garlic and blend well.
This now goes into a large saucepan  or stockpot- the shallower the vessel the faster it will cook down .Add the juice collected from the seeds and  the sugar.
Bring to a boil and boil until the sauce is thickened, stirring more often as it thickens-I  also lower the temperature as the water evaporates to avoid scorching.

If canning, pour hot into the jars, put on the lid and ring, and put in a large pot of boiling water that covers the jars and boil for 30 minutes- 45 if they are big jars. Cool. If the lid pops down, its good to go, if not use it within a week since you didn't get a good seal.

For freezing, cool the sauce before putting in the bags or containers. If I use bags, I double bag to avoid spills.

For Spaghetti:

cooked ground meat or meatballs
Optional: diced green pepper ,
sliced mushrooms, chopped onion, etc
grated hard cheese(parmesan or romano)

If adding vegtables, precook them in the microwave for about a minute ans set aside

Put a bag of frozen sauce in a large microwave bowl with some frozen  pre cooked meatballs, and cook on high for about 10 minutes, Stir, add the vegtables and return for about five more- how long it takes to get hot depends on your freezer temperature.

While this is underway, cook your pasta-it should be done at about the same time as the sauce is hot

Pour over pasta and add ground cheese. Dinner is done and it took under 20 minutes!