Unfussy Basic Tomato Sauce (Using Fresh Tomatoes)

This is the way my aunt showed me years ago to make a simple, fresh tomato sauce. It can be used in many ways, of course most favour it over pasta. I didn't know her exact quantities but I found a very close version www.formerchef.com. If you're new to blanching & de-seeding tomatoes, it's pretty easy and I've put the instructions at the bottom...there are also lots of tutorials online showing you how. I've never tried it, but apparently this freezees well.

• Ready In: 3 hrs
• Yields: 12 cups

Ingredients

• 2  large cooking onions, diced
• 2  tablespoons olive oil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
• 6  garlic cloves, minced
• 2  tablespoons dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, whatever you like**)
• 1⁄2 cup red wine
• 12  large tomatoes, peeled and seeded (*)
•  salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat up the olive oil. Once warm, add the onions and cook slowly, on medium heat. Add about 1/2 tsp of sea salt. You want them to caramelize so low & slow is crucial or they may burn, this will take some time so start the onions off first and then work on your tomatoes.
2. Once the onions are nicely cooked, add the garlic and dried herbs and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook for 2 minutes more.
4. Add the tomatoes and their juice and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook on low, stirring occasionally for about 2 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. *Just how many tomatoes to use can be tricky. You want about 12 cups chopped and generally 1 large tomato will give you 1 cup, a medium tomato around 3/4 of a cup. You could also sub 2 of the large tins of tomatoes (28oz). If you do used tinned, you might want to add some sugar to cut the acidity.
6. To skin a tomato, bring a large pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add the tomatoes in about 6 or 7 at a time. Leave them for about 20 seconds. Have a bowl of cold water with ice ready. Take them from the boiling bath to the cold bath to stop the cooking process. Repeat this for all the tomatoes. The skins have likely split by now and you can easily peel them off (or make a tiny split to start peeling).
7. I seed tomatoes just using my hands to squeeze the seeds out, catch the juices with a strainer and then chop up what's left, discard the seeds.
8. **If you opt to use fresh herbs, add them in towards the end.