Lets face it, summer is winding down. Even if I didn't want to admit it, just looking at my garden gave me a not so subtle clue that Fall is approaching. My tomatoes, which came in abundance earlier this year, now look as though they are ready to give up. All that is left, are several over-ripe ones. Our generous neighbor stopped by and gave us lots of vegetables including several more over-ripe tomatoes.
This has been a great season for tomatoes, which are one of my favorite vegetables, technically a fruit, (but that just doesn't seem right). This summer I've cooked tomatoes in all kinds of ways, and made one of my seasonal favorites, a simple tomato sandwich, just bread, mayo and a few huge slices of tomatoes! Delicious!
So what did I do with the stack of juicy, dripping, and some-what rotting stack of tomatoes? What else... make sauce! After carving away the bad parts, I diced them, skins, seeds and all (This IS a rustic sauce after all).
For some extra flavor, I reached into my freezer and found two frozen delicious Italian sausage from Giacomo's Italian Market, the best Italian sausage I've found so far in my town of Greensboro, NC, (It's not easy finding good, authentic Italian food here)!
The sauce was rich, acidic and bursting with the fresh flavor of fresh tomatoes. As a matter of fact I would have been perfectly content to eat it as a a soup!
End of Summer Rustic Tomato Sauce
4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
2 Italian Sausage links (2 pork chops can be substituted)
1/2 onion- minced
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
6 large ripe tomatoes
Tbsp Fresh basil and oregano, chopped
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• Heat a medium saucepan at medium heat, add 2 Tbsp Olive oil.
• Add the Italian sausage, cook it on all sides, turning every few minutes. Cook until fully browned, around 8-10 minutes.
• Remove the sausage and cut it into bite-sized rounds, set aside.
• In the same (still hot) pan, add the other 2 Tbsp's of Olive Oil
• Stir in the Onion and garlic along with the Salt, pepper and Crushed red pepper
• Once the onions turn translucent (about a minute) add all of the chopped tomatoes
• Stir in the cut-up Italian sausage and sugar
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
• Once boiling reduce to simmer, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally
Serve over (gluten free rice) pasta, sprinkle with chopped Fresh basil and oregano, and Parmesan cheese. Personally I recommend a glass of a good red wine as well.
Salute'!