Tomato sauce, aka passata, is a staple in almost every pantry worldwide. It is one of the most versatile ingredients you can use, lending itself to cuisines from many different nations.

As vegetable gardeners, we are lucky to be able to make our own. Despite being plentiful in supermarkets and inexpensive to buy, basic tomato sauce tastes so much better when made from home-grown tomatoes! Home-made sauce freezes beautifully, and makes good use of an abundant harvest: anyone who has grown a full-size indeterminate cherry tomato plant will know what too many tomatoes looks like!

Making this pure tomato sauce is easy. There are few ingredients required, and no set quantities. In fact, aside from tomatoes, the main ingredients are time and patience. Pure tomato sauce adds depth, intensity & flavour to meals like casseroles, slow cooks, pastas, and more.

Here’s How to Make It

Wash, de-stem then core & score your tomatoes one by one. It doesn’t matter if you mix various varieties together in one sauce, as I have here. Add about 1/4 cup of oil to a large deep frying pan and bring it to a low-medium heat. This sauce is cooked slowly and gently, so you don’t want to ever let the pan get too hot. Once the pan is warm, add the tomatoes. I choose not to add salt to the sauce, but you can include some if you want to.

Cook for around 2 hours, stirring intermittently so that the mixture doesn’t catch. I like to add water here and there- usually about 1/3 cup at a time. Once the tomatoes have broken down and the skins & seeds are visibly separate, turn off the heat because it’s time to strain the sauce. At this point you can let the sauce cool, or not. It won’t affect the flavour, but I usually let it cool for a while.

Prepare a large bowl and strainer. As you see, I strain mine in the sink because the sauce can be quite ‘splashy’. Place a few large spoonsful of the sauce in the strainer and push it through slowly, scraping the spoon side to side across the strainers mesh. This removes the seeds and skins, which you can compost.

The straining process can be quite slow, but don’t give up! The end result is quite worth it. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the strainer off too.

If you want to grow more of the same tomatoes (assuming you’re using home-grown), you can ferment the seed and store it for future crops. Once you’ve finished straining, you’ll be left with a lovely thick, pure tomato sauce. The sauce will keep for 3 days in the fridge, or you can freeze it in meal-sized portions or ice cube trays for future use.

For more ways to eat, cook, and preserve tomatoes, you can find our recipes here.