Awesome Sauce (homemade tomato sauce)

I had to do something with my mounds of tomatoes, so I decided to make and freeze some sauce. 


It seems like the easiest thing in the world to do, but before this I had never done it before.  Here is a short tutorial.  Let us begin!!


You will need:


5 pounds tomatoes.  (I prefer Roma tomatoes as they have less water and thus take less time to cook.  But you can use whatever you have.)
Large cooking pot
Potato masher
Blender


Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add tomatoes.  Let them boil for approximately one minute, then remove and insert directly in to a bowl of ice water.  This will make the skins peel off easily.  Peel the skins, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. 

Place the (squozen? squozed? squeezed?) tomatoes in a collander while you do the rest, this will allow them to drain a bit more liquid as you are working.

Transfer tomato mixture to large  pot and heat over medium heat, stirring often to prevent the tomatoes from burning and sticking to (thus ruining) your (expensive Calphalon) pot. 

After the tomatoes have cooked down a bit, I use a potato masher to break up any chunks that are left. 


For added smoothness, I add the mixture to the blender and puree for about 1 minute. 

Then transfer back to the pot and cook on low heat for another 10-15 minutes.

That's some good lookin' sauce!!

To freeze the sauce, allow to cook and pour sauce in to a freezer bag.  Squeeze out all of the air that you can, then what I do is close the bag tightly, stick a straw in the corner of the bag (leave a portion open for the straw) and suck the excess air out.  Then quickly seal the bag.  Lay the bag flat and freeze.