Homemade Hot Sauce

This homemade hot sauce makes good use of the bountiful tomatoes, onions and peppers in your garden or farmers’ market. Adjust the heat to your preference: in our tests, two habaneros yielded a pleasantly spicy sauce without excessive heat—take it up a notch for spicy-food fans by adding extra hot peppers. ---from eatingwell.com

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 2 2/3 cups hot sauce

Ingredients

• 2  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1  cup  diced onion
• 2  chili peppers, diced
• 2 -4  habanero peppers or 2 -4  other small hot chili peppers, stemmed, halved and seeded
• 4  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  lb tomatoes, diced (about 3 cups)
• 1  cup distilled white vinegar
• 2  teaspoons salt
• 1 -3  teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, chile peppers, habaneros to taste and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion is soft and beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add tomatoes, vinegar, salt and sugar to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to break down, about 5 minutes.
3. Carefully transfer the tomato mixture to a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. (Use caution when pureeing hot ingredients.) Set a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; pour the pureed mixture through the sieve, pushing on the solids with a wooden spoon to extract all the liquid. (Discard solids.) Let the sauce cool to room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours.