Market Day!

My favorite day of the week!! During the summer and fall, the local farmers, ranchers and craft-ers set up their booths every Wednesday under the Cottonwood trees in our local park. Sometimes you have to wrangle for the veggies you want, did I mention our only large grocery store is WalMart? 'nuf said....so I am there with bells on! I am a sucker for all the color!!

Here is a simple tomato sauce shared with us from our Alameda Farmer's Market Managers

Simple Tomato Sauce

There are endless variations to this. Buy whatever appeals to you at the market. If you can or freeze it, you'll be able to enjoy the flavorful taste of summer all winter.

2 medium large onions (about 1 pound)
3-6 large cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2-3 pounds of ripe tomatoes, chopped
Other vegetables as desired

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring 3-5 minutes.  You can add zucchini, peppers, eggplant, green beans, chard, basil, etc. and continue cooking and stirring for 2-3 minutes, or you can skip all of this and proceed to the next step.

Add 2-3 pounds of ripe chopped tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the tomatoes are as done as you like them. If the tomatoes are particularly watery, you may want to cook some of this water off. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Tip: If you buy 5-10 lbs of tomatoes each time you go to market, you can experiment with this recipe until you figure out what variation you like best. Then, let it cool to room temperature, and pour it into a zip lock bag. Lay the bag down flat in a small baking dish and put in freezer. Once frozen, remove from dish. The flat bag will take up less room in the freezer so that you have room to make and freeze more!  If you do not want to contend with the tomato skins, puree the sauce before or after freezing.