Peak Of The Season ? Tomato Sauce Techniques

There’s something very satisfying about making homemade tomato sauce during the peak of the tomato season. Bright flavor profiles, along with perfectly balanced acidity with beautiful natural sweetness.  Peak season tomato sauce is the essence of mother nature smiling at the cooks of the world – so many possibilities. Perfect tomatoes are a balance of sweetness, acidity and ripeness. All too often tomatoes are lacking in flavor and are almost bland. Knowing the right timing of the year to kick into tomato sauce mode is the key to success.

When is ? Tomato Season?

? : May through October 

When is Peak ? Tomato Season?

? : August & September

Good info to know

I’m really happy to be sharing this tomato sauce post with you today. I have a good friend that shared their homemade tomato sauce recipe with me the other day. They were really proud of their creation, and I couldn’t agree more. The trick? Good technique, which we will be using those same techniques/(plus) to create this masterful tomato sauce.

Step by Step for Making Peak Of The Season ? Tomato Sauce

STEP ONE ?

Shopping. Not a step to take lightly, oh NO. This is the time to crack the vault and spend some hard earned money on top quality tomatoes. I suggest visiting your local farmers market or a grocery store like Central Market / Whole Foods. This is the time to buy organic tomatoes for maximum flavor. #organic #tomatoes

I bought three kinds of tomatoes:

1. Heirloom
2. Organic Tomatoes From Mexico
3. San Marzano Tomatoes – (Regarded as the best tomatoes in the world) (The small tomatoes in the photo above)

STEP TWO ?

Take pictures of your amazing produce for Instagram ?

STEP THREE ?

• Technique #1

Tomato Concasse –Michelin Guide Def

We are going remove the tomato peel on the San Marzano tomatoes. French culinary calles this “Concasse”

Concasser, the French word for “to crush or grind,” is a very basic cooking technique often applied to vegetables.

And the tomato concasse is an easy, useful technique to have in your back pocket; the procedure involves boiling scored tomatoes in water before being peeled, seeded and then roughly chopped, with a simple end result that can be served alone or applied to a variety of dishes.

Tomato concasse can be used as the base for tomato sauce, served atop crusty bread for bruschetta, or added to the decadent Béarnaise sauce for a sauce Choron.

Eric Ripert, chef/owner of the three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in New York City, beefs up his tomato compote by adding tomato concasse for his elevated take on a crab cake.

The Technique to Tomato Concasse

SO SIMPLE – boil the tomatoes in hot water for two minutes. THE KEY: You have to make/cut an “X” on the bottom of the tomatoes. This technique allows the peel on the tomato to be easily removed.

NOTE: Have an ice bath prepared and ready to go as soon as the two minute timer is up. Shock the tomatoes to stop the cooking process, but mostly to make sure it’s easy to remove the peel.

 

PHOTO: Peels Removed | San Marzano Tomatoes – from Central Market in Austin Texas –

STEP FOUR ?

Here’s the sweet spot in our process. Roasting the tomatoes, but only the larger tomatoes as the smaller ones (San Marzano tomatoes) will just disappear/dissolve during the roasting process.

1. First, Wash the tomatoes under running water
2. Slice the tomatoes lengthwise making only one cut – We want to keep the tomatoes as large as possible to protect them during the roasting process.
3. Add salt and pepper to the sliced side of the tomatoes.
4. Place the tomatoes face down on a roast tray/cookie sheet. But first add some oil like olive oil to the pan. Then place the tomatoes face down on the oil. This will help the tomatoes not burn while cooking.
5. Insert-photo ? _ Mexico Vine Ripen Organic Tomatoes
6. Set your oven to 225 degrees and place the tomatoes in the middle rack on your oven.
7. 
8. Roast the tomatoes for 8 hours, Yep, 8 to 9 hours @225
9. Once you remove the tomatoes from the oven, using a fork, remove the outside peel from the tomatoes. Be sure to keep the peel on while roasting or risk the tomatoes just melting away.

STEP FIVE ?

Using a blender, add the roasted tomatoes along with the peeled San Marzano tomatoes to the blender.

NOTE: We have only added a very small amount of salt to the tomatoes before roasting. I want you to NOT add anymore salt until the end. I didn’t even add salt at the end to preserve the natural flavor. You will be so shocked when you taste the finished sauce. Does not need the salt from the quality techniques we used to create this “Peak of the season tomatoes sauce”. The peak of the season is the key factor bringing the flavor to the table. We do not need to mess with one nature’s perfect creation, well, not much this time/recipe. ?

The sauce is bright and perfectly acidic & has great natural sweetness.

IMPORTANT KEY STEP ?

Next, blend the tomatoes in your blender. BUT only enough to puree them. The longer you puree the tomatoes the more air you’ll incorporate into the sauce.

Why does this matter? Because your tomato sauce will end up a lighten color. More of an orange tomato sauce.

Here’s another post I did on Making Homemade Tomato Sauce – You can see what I’m talking about with the color change. This can be an excellent technique for bringing bright color into your sauce and overall plated dish presentation.

FINISHING THE SAUCE

Once the Peak Of The Season ? Tomato Sauce has been pureed in the blender, then pour the sauce into a medium sized pot. Cook on the stove top for a minimum of 30 minutes on a low medium/ low heat. Be sure to stir the sauce along the way. Longer cook times can come with excellent value in flavor.

Longer cook times will do two things:

1. Creates a deeper flavor profile & color – Richer flavor & softens of the acidity level.
2. The natural sugar in the tomatoes will concentrate and become even sweeter. This can make for an amazing sauce.

At this point we arrived in tomatoes sauce heaven. We created a sauce that is pure, rich and untouched by other ingredients. The sky is the limit now.

Please enjoy

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