So I made my first attempt at making a tomato based sauce from scratch! We had about 7 or 8 ripes home grown tomatoes and 6 home grown romas that I didn't think we were really going to be able to eat before they went bad. I boiled up water and threw them in the hot water for a couple minutes nad then gave them a cold water bath. Next I removed the skins and squeezed out juice and removed as much of the seeds I could by hand. I threw them all in a blender and did a quick puree with some salt, just enough to keep it a little chunky. Next step was putting some EVO in a sauce pan and sautéing up half of a large onion, 4 chopped cloves of garlic and 2 shallots (I've never actually used shallots before so I wasn't sure how much I should use). After they all got glassy I added the puree and cooked the sauce down for about an hour (till it thickened up enough). During the cooking process I added some oregano, basil (the sort of fresh stuff they have in a squeeze tube), salt, pepper, some Emeril Essence, and then when Kelly got home to knock it a bit we added some Garlic Salt. I then boiled up the penne pasta we had waiting. Lastly I had got a thing of French bread from Albertsons and cut it in half. I mixed up butter (not really butter, I think we have I can't believe it's not butter), about 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic, and 2 tablespoons of Newmans Own Caesar dressing and spread it on the bread. I cooked it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 and then another 4-5 minutes at 550 (this gave it the perfect texture, crunchy but not burnt crust and like but slightly crunchy bread).

Overall it was really good. I meant to take a couple pictures but when I'm busy cooking I'm usually running all over trying to get everything done.

Things I will change next time. I forgot to drain the juice that built up in the blender before I started it, if I did that it wouldn't have ended up as watery. Plus it was a little bit acidic even with peeling and getting rid of a good amount of the seeds and juice. My mom usually strains the tomatoes through a wire colander but that takes a bit more time (which I didn't have).

We both liked it and we have some leftovers still. This will probably be one of my last home cooked meals I make from scratch till after the wedding. Then I'll be able to use the new pots and pans someone bought us! ;)