Easy Tomato Sauce

I am passionate about growing tomatoes. All winter I dream about that first, ripe, tart tomato from my garden. Every summer I vow that next year I will cut back, I will plant fewer tomatoes. When spring fever hits all reason flies out the window and I am planting as many tomato plants as I can squeeze into my backyard garden.
Consequently I always end up with more tomatoes than we can possibly use. Mr. Walton doesn’t even Eat tomatoes. He will eat them as spaghetti sauce, tomato gravy or finely diced and cooked into soups and stews.
Some years I make catsup or chili sauce, I always roast a few batches of paste tomatoes and freeze them for pasta dishes. I fill the dehydrator a few times so I always have dried tomatoes available for later use and frequently I will can tomatoes, tomato juice or spaghetti sauce. No matter what how much I preserve in the end I always seem to have extra tomatoes. My neighbors are now hiding from me so it’s time to make a quick, easy batch of tomato puree or sauce.
Easy Tomato Sauce
Core and cut in half enough tomatoes to fill your stock pot ½ – 2/3 full. There is no need to peel or seed your tomatoes with this method. Crush them enough so the juices run free. Place on the burner on medium heat and bring to a full boil, stirring frequently.
Turn down to simmer and allow to cook for 30 minutes or until the volume is reduced by 1/3 – ½. This is determined by how much time you have and if you want a puree or a thicker tomato sauce. I typically make it a bit thinner as I like to use it as a base for soups and it can always be further reduced for a specific recipe at a later time.
Remove from heat and puree using an immersion mixer or a high speed blender. Run the mixer long enough to mince the peels and seeds into tiny flecks. At this point you can add salt according to taste, I usually wait and add the desired amount of salt for the recipe I am preparing.

At this point I allow it to cool then ladle it into freezer containers or bags. I only put about 1 cup in each bag because we are a 2 person household. I seldom need more than 8oz for a recipe but if you have a large family you might want to freeze it in 16oz portions.
Use this as a base for tomato soup, gravy for a meatloaf, vegetable soup starter or as an addition to Mexican rice.
If you prefer to not have the miniscule pieces of peel, (shame on you – it provides wonderful dietary fiber), you can strain it through a fine mesh strainer before placing into freezer containers.