The Perfect Time for Homemade Tomato Sauce

The best time to make homemade tomato sauce, one that surpasses any store-bought version, is during July and August. This is when tomatoes are at their peak, bursting with sugars and flavor. However, just having tomatoes in season isn’t enough to guarantee the perfect sauce.

The Right Conditions

While summer is crucial for starting your tomato sauce venture, two other factors play a significant role: the type of tomato and the technique used.

If you opt for the large, round tomatoes often found at local markets or grocery stores, you won’t achieve the desired results, even in August. These tomatoes are often hydroponically grown, filled with seeds and juice, and relatively bland. A sauce made from such tomatoes will be watery, moderately flavorful, and slightly pink.

The Ideal Tomato

Worldwide, the Roma variety is considered ideal for making sauce. These long, narrow tomatoes in Greece, are chosen because they have few seeds, are sweet, and are usually redder than other types. This variety is also used by industries that produce ready-made tomato sauces.

Once you’ve chosen the ideal tomatoes at the right time (which you can easily find in the market during this season), the technique to enhance the culinary result becomes crucial. Simply boiling them in a pot won’t do justice to the raw material.

The Secret Technique

The key to intensifying the flavor lies in baking the tomatoes in the oven. Slow cooking in the oven dehydrates the tomatoes, concentrating their flavor and causing chemical reactions in the sugars, which multiplies the sauce’s flavor intensity.

Another benefit of this method is the ease of removing the tomato skins. The process is not laborious and significantly better than boiling, as the oven does half the work for you!

Recipe for Success

Here’s the recommended technique for the ideal homemade tomato sauce:

1. Choose ripe tomatoes, wash them, and cut them lengthwise, removing the white, hard part from their heads.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F) with a fan.
3. Spread parchment paper on a baking sheet (for easier cleaning), sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of coarse salt evenly, and place the tomatoes cut side down in contact with the salt.
4. Add extra flavors if desired by placing some coarsely chopped onion and a few garlic cloves between the tomatoes.
5. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake for about 45 minutes, until the tomato skins start to blacken.
6. Remove the baking sheet, wait 10 minutes for the tomatoes to cool slightly, and then peel off the skins.
7. Transfer the tomato flesh and other ingredients to a strainer, avoiding too much salt, and squeeze out most of the liquid. Put the remaining flesh through a food processor to make a pulp. At this stage, I recommend adding a small amount of good vinegar to enhance the flavors.
8. Store the sauce base in sterilized jars with a little olive oil on top or in freezer bags. When ready to use, boil it for a few minutes and add any desired seasonings (e.g., basil or oregano).

Enjoy Your Homemade Sauce

Use your homemade sauce with pride in any dish. However, even if you choose not to make the homemade sauce in August, you can still enjoy the excellent Greek tomato sauce brands available, made from various brands.