Tomatoes Piling Up? Try This Fresh Pasta Sauce Recipe

It wasn't too long ago I was whining about my tomatoes never turning green. Now, I'm knee deep in Romas, Early Girl's (won't grow those again - blah), Brandywine Heirlooms, and amazing Rutgers. In mid-summer I took basil bouquets when I went to someone's house. Now I take tomatoes and sometimes have to come home with them.

I found a really good, simple recipe for a fresh pasta sauce that used up a whole basket full of my Romas along with peppers, basil, oregano and parsley all from the garden and cooked it up the other night.

Garden Fresh Pasta Sauce from BigOven.com was yummy and even my kids dug right in and said it was really good. It was such a joy to make a completely organic pasta sauce with ingredients fresh from the garden. Although making it took so much more effort than opening a jar, I really enjoyed feeding my family that night. I'm always amazed at how satisfying downshifting can be.

Note: I found the recipe as is too salty after I made it so I added a can of unsalted tomato paste to help. It ended up being too thick so I used my food mill to juice two Early Girl tomatoes (at least they were good for something) to thin it out. Next time, I'll half the salt and add more if necessary.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to attempt using my tomatoes to make pizzas on the grill. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll be making the dough in my bread machine and letting each of us make an individual pizza.