Summer Uncooked Tomato Sauce

 

This is why you should have a vegetable garden, or at least grow a couple tomato plants and some basil even if you have limited space, grow them in containers. We are fortunate to have a nice flat back yard with a big garden that gets plenty of sun. This time of year here in Georgia so many herbs and vegetables are getting to their peak of flavor ready to be picked. I pulled three Cherokee purple tomatoes out of the garden this morning to make this uncooked raw tomato sauce. 

This simple tomato sauce is very aromatic with the individual ingredients keeping their identity. You can clearly smell and taste the separate components - the sweet/tart Cherokee purple tomatoes, the lemony fresh basil, the pungent raw garlic, the background heat from the Calabrese pepper and the grassy olive oil. 

Make sure to get the freshest tomatoes possible. You won't be disappointed. Don't even try this with pale supermarket tomatoes. If you don't grow your own tomatoes and basil, wait until you can find some heirloom tomatoes and good basil at a farmers market. This will be your go-to pasta sauce for special occasions every summer.

Ingredients for two people - adjust amounts for more:

3 ripe home grown or heirloom tomatoes finely chopped. (Let their juices go into the sauce too.)

3 large garlic cloves finely chopped, not minced

1 nice handful of fresh basil hand torn into small pieces

1/2 cup of a good quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional - small hot chili pepper finely chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper (and hot pepper if using) in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and then the basil. Make this several hours ahead of when you are going to use it. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle and develop. Stir every now and then and taste. Do not refrigerate.

Use this with your favorite pasta along with a side of grilled Italian sausage and some sliced melon. Salty pecorino cheese is perfect on top. Yah!   

Or... as the tomato sauce for any summery dish - grilled/fried eggplant, zucchini, peppers, dollop on scrambled or fried eggs,  as a bruschetta topping and more.