Tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes

The weather is changing from being full of sunshine and blue sky to much more typical Autumn style with lower temperature, grey sky and rainy days. Therefore I decided to use up all my outdoor tomatoes in one go by making home-made tomato sauce for the very first ever. For me it is also a way of saving a wonderful Summer for later use in my little kitchen, when the rainy and grey days start knocking on the front door !!!

This home-made tomato sauce will also be my contribution for the monthly blogging challenge Tea Time Treats, which is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Janie from The Hedge Combers. As theme for September, Janie was selected Mediterranean food.

Being a lazy cook I did not see the need for removing the skin from the tomatoes, before turning them into tomato sauce, as everything is being blended together at the end. The skin of the tomatoes also equals fibre, so it is a more healthy sauce - perhaps !!!

Home-made tomato sauce: - 4 portions

• 2 stalks of celery - medium chopped
• 1 carrot - medium chopped
• 1 onion - medium chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic - medium chopped
• 1000g ripe tomatoes - medium chopped
• 1 pot of fresh parsley - chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 chilies - de-seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar - optional
• salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Place the tomatoes in a large cooking pot together with celery, carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, vinegar, honey and olive oil. Bring the pot to a quiet simmer and let it simmer gently with the lid on the cooking pot. Let it simmer for one hour, while you from time to time give everything a stir.
2. After one hour blend everything together. 
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. To boost the sweetness of the tomatoes I added into some brown sugar as well.
5. Pour the tomato sauce into smaller containers, which is cooled down, before they are placed in the freezer for later use.