Childhood Uncontained: Tomato Sauce Recipe

We are up to our ears in tomatoes over here from our trip to Froberg's Farm! I love doing things like that because the learning doesn't end when you leave the Farm. With all of our goodies we picked we've been having fun in the kitchen!

Here is a pizza/ tomato sauce recipe that is not only delicious but is kid friendly too!

First, you need to remove the skins from your tomatoes. Do this by boiling a pot of water. Have a bowl of ice water on hand as well.

Place several tomatoes in the boiling water and leave for a few minutes. The skins will start getting crinkly, sort of how little fingers get when bath time is almost up!

Use a strainer spoon to scoop out the tomatoes of the boiling water and put directly in to the ice water (this stops the tomatoes from cooking any further). Let sit for a few minutes to make sure they are no longer hot. Have your little one pull the tomatoes out of the ice water and place on a clean towel.

Then you can easily pull the skins off.

Beau thought this part was disgusting.

Once you've pulled all of the skins off, you can throw the naked tomatoes in a pan over medium high heat. Mash the tomatoes with a potato masher.

Remove the mashed tomatoes from the pan, and add in about one chopped yellow onion, three cloves of garlic and a few peeled carrots (these were left over from me spiralizing carrot noodles!) Sauté for a few minutes, or until the onions are translucent.

Add the mashed tomatoes to the pan with the onion, garlic and carrots. Add in some fresh basil leaves (I pulled Five from my little plant out back). Also add in three bay leaves (I buy these dried in the little jar by the spices).

Add salt and pepper and stir!

Lower the heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

After an hour of tomato-y sauce-y smell-y goodness is done, remove from heat and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, pour sauce in a blender (I use my vitamix) and purée until smooth.