About this Recipe

At the end of a full day there, a true joy in life is frozen pre-made delicious food. Easy freezer recipes are where it’s at! When tomatoes are in full end of summer and fall harvest I love to fry up a huge batch of them with some yummy flavors, puree them and then put them in perfectly sized freezer bags or tupperware so that on a cold fall or winter day I can just open up the freezer door and pull out a portion for the evening meal. Perhaps a simple tomato soup and bread, or maybe I’ll add rice to the soup, or a bit of cooked pasta. I can also use the frozen tomato sauce recipe in a NEW fancy soup recipe that I want to get creative. There are just so many uses for freezer tomato sauce.

Grandmother’s TIPS for Easy Freezer Tomato Sauce Recipe

1. I like to freeze my things as flat bags as they take up less room in the freezer.

2. Among the other ideas above, this sauce is great for pasta spaghetti sauces. You can add more things to it when you make your dish such as mushrooms, zucchini and meats. It also adds great flavor to vegetable soup.

3. Choose the ripest tomatoes you can find for this recipe.

4. Make this recipe at the end of tomato season when the local farmers are sometimes known to discount their tomatoes and you can make this for a great price.

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Ingredients

(Print)

Makes: 8-10 cups sauce

20-24 fresh tomatoes ( we used beefsteak)

1 cooking onion (chopped into small pieces)

1 garlic clove (we used a large Russian Red clove)

3-5 celery stalks (chopped into small pieces)

Fresh herbs - a few sprigs (we used parsley and oregano) - 2 Tablespoons of each when chopped

3 Tablespoons grapeseed or olive oil

Directions

1. Have ready a deep cooking pot.

2. Place the tomatoes into a large bowl in the sink. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to blanch so the skins will peel off easily. Boil enough water to cover the tomatoes. Let them sit for a few minutes and when the skins start to peel back, drain the water and leave the tomatoes to sit to cool so you can handle them.

3. Chop onions, herbs, garlic and celery into small pieces.

4. Peel and chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

5. Put the oil into a large pot and turn to medium heat. Add the onions and sauté few minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the celery and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Stir to keep from scorching.

6. Add the salt, stir in and continue cooking over medium heat.

7. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot and stir in. Add the herbs and stir in.

8. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, burn down to medium and cook for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

9. Shut off and let sauce cool to room temperature.

10. Have ready Ziploc freezer bags. An easy method is to stand an open bag into a measuring cup and use a small glass measuring cup to scoop the sauce into the bags.

11. Put whatever amount into the bag you like. I did one cup and two cup bags and labeled them accordingly for future use.

12. When you seal the bags squeeze the air out as the food will stay fresh longer. Place the bags into the freezer.

ENJOY!

Return to this Tomato Sauce recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

This tomato sauce recipe is a great idea for stocking up your freezer. The nice thing is that you don't need any canning jars for this tomato sauce recipe, instead Ziploc baggies are used to freeze up one and two cup portions, perfect for all of your easy dinner ideas. It's nice to be able to grab some homemade tomato sauce whenever you need it, with this easy to make recipe. Enjoy tomato nutrition all year long with this tomato sauce recipe to use later in everything from tomato soup, cooked pasta recipes, chili recipes and more.

For this easy to make Ziploc baggies tomato sauce, you can use fresh herbs such as parsley and oregano for added flavor. If you know the right way to store fresh herbs, they will last longer in the fridge. Fresh herbs go bad because of either too much moisture which can turn the leaves slimy, or too little moisture which can cause the leaves to dry out. And too much light will cause the fresh herbs to yellow, and excess oxygen will turn them brown.

There are two types of herbs to include woody herbs and tender herbs. Woody herbs include rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano.

To store woody herbs in the fridge, you can wrap them loosely in a damp paper towel, then store the herb bundle in an airtight container or a Ziploc baggie in your crisper drawer. The paper towel will keep the woody herbs damp enough, so they don’t dry out, and the Ziploc baggie airtight container will keep the oxygen out.

Tender herbs include parsley, cilantro, dill, basil, tarragon and mint. Tender herbs can be stored in your fridge like a bouquet. Simply trim the ends of the stems and fill a glass with some cold water and place the bunch of herbs in the glass. Change the water in the glass every couple of days to keep fresh. Basil bouquets should not be stored in the fridge but rather on your kitchen counter, as the leaves will turn black if put in the fridge.