When life gives you lemons

The old saying is “When life gives you lemons – make lemonade”.  But when you get a glut of tomatoes what do you make – tomato sauce of course.

I had a bowl of tomatoes fresh from the in-law’s garden so decided to turn them into a fresh, summery sauce.

I started with a knob of butter and a glug of sunflower oil which I heated.  I then added some finely chopped onion, three sticks of celery and three cloves of garlic finely chopped and let them cook until they just started to brown.  At this point I added 2-3 Tbsp tomato puree and stir then cooked for 5 minutes till the colours started to turn a bit brown.

I cut the tomatoes in half and took out that hard bit in the middle with a small sharp knife.  I roughly chopped the tomatoes  and added them to the onion mixture. 

 This all cooked for about 10-15 minutes till they started to go pulpy.  I dissolved a vegetable stock cube in about 3oz of boiling water and added to the sauce.  I let this all bubble gently for about half an hour before adding 2 Tbsp pesto.

Just before adding the vegetable that I had roasting in the oven whilst making the sauce I strained the sauce to get out the tomato skins. (you could peel the tomatoes first but I think you get more flavour if you leave them in during the cooking process).

We had this served over spaghetti  with grated parmesan cheese on top. It was certainly yummy and Clive wants to take the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow.

By the way whist I have been typing this I was eating my pudding which is a lemon posset made with Mango Mojito Dessert Sauce (www.mysecretkitchen.co.uk) . I will be giving the recipe for this very soon.