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How to Make Easy Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce

Authentic Italian Recipes Passed Down from Nana and Ma to Me!

It really is so simple to make your own tomato sauce, and it’s so much tastier then “store bought” tomato sauce in a jar!

It’s economical too, when you buy your ingredients as you see them on sale and keep them on hand in your pantry. Having the ingredients on hand means you can whip up a tomato sauce anytime you think of it. It can be as quick and easy as a fresh one-skillet sauce to use with cooked vegetables and chicken for a light summertime meal. Or it can be a slowly simmered tomato sauce chock full of homemade meatballs, sweet or hot Italian sausages, chunks of boneless pork loin or homemade braciole.

Either way, next time you’re home on a chilly or rainy weekend, make your own tasty tomato sauce. Your boyfriend, husband, even the kids will just love it! And they’ll love YOU for making it!

Buying The Staples to Make Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce

I have made tomato sauce from fresh-from-my-garden plum tomatoes (the Roma variety) in the past. Perhaps I may have derived a kind of “Martha Stewart-like” sense of accomplishment from having peeled and ground my own garden grown tomatoes for my sauce. But in reality, I have found it’s just not worth the extra work and bother to EVER do that again! In the end, sauce made this way tastes no different from a sauce using canned tomatoes. It also requires A LOT of tomatoes to make an average size sauce.

But if you still want to give it a try, the basic process is this: first, you must plunge the whole tomato into boiling hot water for a few seconds to be able to peel off the skin. Then remove the seeds of each tomato as much as you can, before processing them to a ground-up consistency.

What a pain in the neck! What a mess it makes, too!

Instead, buy canned tomatoes. Every so often you’ll see canned ground peeled tomatoes on sale in the supermarket, and this is the time to stock up. The usual sale price is about a dollar for a 28 ounce can, which is the size you need. The best price I’ve paid is 79 cents a can, but I haven’t seen that for a while. Normally, the price per can is about $1.50 or so. Buy two to four cans at least; four cans will make 4 smaller sauces approximately the size of those “jar” sauces, or 2 large sauces. A large sauce is better if you want to add meat to it.

Be sure to only buy good, “name brand” canned tomatoes, because there IS a difference in taste.

Could you imagine where the pizza industry would be today without tomato sauce? The top two condiments in the United States, ketchup and salsa, are tomato-based. It is safe to say that the tomato is an all-American culinary entity, a piece of Americana sharing ranks with apple pie, maple syrup, and that staple of staples, good ole corn. We’ve become very familiar with the pale, mild-flavored hybrid tomatoes in the supermarkets, the thick canned pastes, and those cute little cherries at your local salad bar. But, for those of us who really love tomatoes, and are looking for something a little more unique or very specific, we grow our own. I am going to attempt to briefly cover the basics of tomato varieties that gardeners should be familiar with.

Determinate vs. Indeterminate

Many gardeners have heard these terms applied to a few different fruits. These words refer to the specific plant’s fruit production habit.

Determinate tomato varieties produce one large crop and then produce little or no fruit for the rest of the season. They are usually shorter than indeterminate varieties and have a fixed height. So, there is no need to stake them. These are often paste or plum tomato varieties.

Indeterminate or the vining varieties are going to be the most common variety for home gardening. They produce a continuous crop all summer until frost, and then they will start to die back.

Tomato Varieties

Your standard or slicing tomatoes are the common medium-sized round tomatoes. These will most often be used in soups or sliced for salads. You’ve seen these in six-pack trays at your local supermarket.

Beef Steak are big tomatoes, some up to 2 pounds. These are the ones that, when sliced, fit sandwiches and burgers very nicely. Beef Steak varieties are also great for stuffing and baking. They are rarely found in supermarkets because their size and tenderness makes them more trouble than they are worth for big retailers. However, they are a home garden dream, a big tasty return on the simple investment in a tiny packet of seeds. Some popular cultivars of this variety are ‘Better Boy’, ‘Big Beef’, and ‘Park’s Whopper’.

Cherry tomatoes are very small tomatoes, ranging from barely bigger than your finger tip to the size of a golf ball. They are often very sweet and perfect by themselves just as a snack. They are the sublime salad tomato because they add lots of flavor, and you don’t have to slice them. The elongated smaller and sweeter grape tomatoes are also a tasty variation of the cherry tomato. Cherry tomato plants produce a large amount of fruit, so you don’t have to plant many to get plenty of tomatoes.

Paste or plum tomatoes are, as the name suggests, often used for canning and sauces. They work well for this because they are less juicy than other varieties, they don’t have a core, and they have far less seeds than other varieties. They are usually small and slightly elongated or “pear-shaped.” They are often lumped together as “Roma” tomatoes, which is actually just one cultivar of this tomato variety.

Choose Your Tomato Wisely

Breeders have had fun with this popular garden plant. They come in all sizes and colors, from pink and striped to almost black. But, the best way to pick your tomato is to grow for your needs. If you want sandwich tomatoes, grow Beef Steaks. If you love tomatoes in your salad, try some different cherry varieties. If your garden is the source for most of your canned goods, you should probably try to grow a few paste tomatoes. Growing your own tomatoes will give you power over selection and power over growing methods. It is cheaper than than buying them at the supermarket, and it can be much more rewarding. Have a good time in your garden, and grow the tomato that’s just right for you.

The pleasure of gardening for myself is the joy of seeing the plants grow. The gardens I have dealt with in my time are vegetable gardens.

Getting the soil ready is the first step for your garden. The soil needs to be tilled so that the soil will germinate the seed a little easier.

My gardens today are much smaller than they were when I was younger. I see a garden as good exercise as well as reaping the fruit the garden grows. So depending on how much exercise you want may help you determine the size of your garden.

Gardens can be planted in stages. Onions can be planed in January or February because frost and cold weather do not kill the onion. another vegetable that can be planted early are English peas-one of my favorites.

Another one of my staples are potatoes, they too need to be planted early. I live in East Texas and I have found that if you plant around the twenty first of March the potatoes will flourish pretty well.

Then every garden needs tomato plants. Sometime around the first of April you need to buy your plants and get them set out. I have tried to buy the tomato seed and raise my own seed but seem to have better luck with the store bought plants. Until these young plant seem to doing well on their own you may have to water them for a while. If you do water your plants the plants will do much better if you add miracle grow to your water. Miracle grow has a fertilizer 18-18-33 designed mostly for tomatoes, but can be used on other vegetables as well. Some time after the tomato plants start growing you will need to stake them to help the plants to support the fruit The easy way to do this is to buy these cages. These cages can be found at most stores that sell farm related merchandise. As the plants grow you need to check their growth and gently raise the limb of the tomato plant up to it’s next level. Remember I said gently because these plant are tender and can be broken very easy. If you start seeing insects eating the plant just sprinkle a little bug dust on them. Enjoy.

Then comes the peas and corn. They too in East Texas can be planted around the first of April. Corn has so many hybrids that it is hard to pick any one corn seed over another. Golden Bantam has always worked for me but use your own discretion on this. I like to put a little fertilizer in the furrow and then mix it with a hoe before planting the seed. The seed is then ready to go in the ground. Enjoy.

The peas are almost as easy to plant as corn. Peas come so easy you may want to put your fertilizer around the pea vines once they come up.

These are my favorite garden vegetables that I enjoy. Again you may start with something different after all it will be your garden.

Some other things a lot of people enjoy are squash,radishes,pinto beans and others.

To begin with we said something about the joy of gardening. When you start eating your corn,peas,potatoes,tomatoes,th is is the joy of gardening that I myself with the help of God grew in my gardening. A little sweat never hurt anyone.

Enjoy.

For the last five years I have operated a small greenhouse in Southwest Virginia in which I grew a variety of plants. The ones that I enjoyed the most by using myself were the tomato plants. These wonders of nature are one of the most sought after staples of my business and a much desired addition to any vegetable garden, whether it is an acre or just a small spot near your home.

I started these wonders from seeds, so I have an appreciation for the entire process. My experience involves the technical process of growing tomatoes to be sturdy wind and storm resistant varieties as well as massive producers of the most sought after prize at the local farmer’s market. Nearly everyone likes a good ripe tomato.

Personally I choose a soilless mixture when I am trying to germinate tomato seeds. It is lighter and allows the roots to freely develop within the rapid growth cycle of sprouting. Normally I will make three rows in an 11 x 20 germination tray in the soilless mixture, and then sprinkle the tomato seeds into the rows. Be careful not to dump too many as they will crowd each other and you will get a ton of small seedlings. Also, the germination percentage is very high, so unless you are able to plant or sell a good quantity, you want to seed accordingly.

I try to keep the mixture from drying out, but a friend that helped me get started described his method as letting the seedlings wilt before he watered them. That way they do not get too tall before they get a good stem. Also, it is best to grow them as cool as possible. Look for a pinkish/purple color in the stem.

I sold tomatoes a couple of different ways during my time as a greenhouse operator. One way was in a pot singly, which allows you to grow a bigger product for those early planters in your clientele. Some people will try to get a jump on everyone, so make sure to include this option in your inventory.

The other method is the classic multi-pack offering, whether it is 4, 6 or 9 cell trays. I sold many of each size, so experiment to see what works best. A critical component of this is to label your varieties if you choose to experiment with multiple varieties, because they look exactly the same in most cases.

Once you are beyond frost or freeze dates, you can venture out to your planting area for the excitement of planting. If you have a good size plant (tall) dig your hole deep and bury at least two-thirds of the stem. The little hairs on each side are roots waiting for the opportunity to grow. Not only will this make your plant more study, it will give more pathways for fertilizer and nutrients to aid your plant.

I have always supported my tomato plants with some type of stake, fencing or cage. The reason for this is that if you have a good growing season, the multitude of fruit will drag your plant to the ground where critters, slugs and blight are sure to ruin part of your crop.

Miracle Grow makes a specific tomato fertilizer, which I have not used too much, so I couldn’t really give an endorsement to it, but I have used regular Miracle Grow with good results. I always try to plant my tomatoes and scoop dirt up around the stem so the fluid stays near the roots until the ground can absorb it.

You must have sustained warmth for the plant to thrive. Also, there must be sufficient moisture to make good fruit. However, we went through one of the driest years I have ever known on my area and everyone said their tomato crops were exceptional. I know mine were. I had gorgeous Parks Whopper vines that produced massive amounts of fruit.

Raising tomatoes is a joy that I hope to always be able to experience.