Sweet Basil Sauce
ingredients:
- 1 qt reduced tomato puree
- 1 clove garlic, fine dice
- 12 to 16 large basil leaves
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
The tomato puree was produced from home-grown tomatoes by dicing and cooking them over medium heat until very soft. A foley mill was used to process the tomatoes to purée — but the purée was very thin and watery and was returned to the heat in order to reduce it to a thick consistency. Approximately 1 quart of this reduced tomato purée was then used to make the sweet basil sauce:
- If starting with cold tomato purée warm in the pot first.
- To the warm purée over medium-low heat add the garlic, basil, onion powder, and salt.
- Keep at a very gentle simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat.
- Pour sauce into a quart-sized canning jar and process accordingly.
The reduced tomato purée also works very well as a pizza sauce with the addition of a little salt. Note that I chose not to add any olive oil to the sauce, contrary to Classico's mentioning it as an ingredient in their Sweet Basil sauce.