Is it possible that in all the decades I've been fearless in the kitchen, making everything I could possibly imagine, that I never once tried to make a tomato sauce from scratch, using fresh tomatoes, not canned? I don't recall ever trying the trick of blanching tomatoes to remove their skins. As of today, I realize it's easy, and not the tedious or unnecessary step I imagined it to be before I tried it. I learned quickly that you don't want to work in batches, but rather one tomato at a time, so that the flesh neither overcooks while you are fishing them all out of the boiling water, nor waterlogs in the ice bath while they wait to be peeled. It's also less than ideal to attempt to add the cute little yellow pear tomatoes in to the mix. It takes too many of them to make a difference in quantity, and they cook too fast in the blanching process.
Last year the tomatoes never really ripened, under the shade of the black walnut on the other side of the fence. This year, I moved the tomatoes about five feet to the south so they would get more sun, and the walnut tree decided to die in the span of about two months. So now I have a mass of ripe fruits and I'm eyeing that tree, wondering how much it would cost to find someone with a sawmill who could turn the dead tree into usable fancy wood, assuming our neighbor lets us be the ones to cut it down, for a handful of boards.
I consulted Pinterest for the instructions on how to start a good sauce from scratch. The recipe I found that was posted by Buzzfeed didn't disappoint. I used a mix of Better Boys, Cherokee Purples, and Yellow Pears, because that's what I grew this year. I had planted Sweet 100s, but they failed. I probably could have cooked my mirepoix longer, but I was anxious to get it going. If I had had a whole head of garlic and patience, I would have roasted it as instructed, but I knew I had bought a jar of minced garlic for the first time ever, and I just used a scoop of that. When it came time to add the wine, I decided the only one I could use with fruits of my own garden was a red wine that was made by my neighbor. Good choice. Even the basil and oregano was from the herb pots on my front porch.
On night one of the sauce, I used it in what could loosely be called "unstuffed cabbage rolls," again inspired by Pinterest and my own memories of food fads. I cooked rice separately, and sauteed cabbage in butter. I combined everything in the bowl at the end. With no attempt at false modesty, I will assert that this came out exceptionally well. I'll be interested to see how it matures over the next day or two. I'll share some with the neighbor, since his wine is in it, and maybe in return, we can have The Talk about his black walnut tree.
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