The Farmers of 2703 Get Saucy

Greetings 2703 Urban Garden fans and followers!!!

In what has been a long winter of aging to perfection the excess tomatoes from the 2009 harvest finally hit their pinnacle of taste yesterday as they were transformed into a delectable sauce. Two of the 2703 Urban Garden Farmers joined forces in the kitchen while the third Farmer (Sean) slept the day away recovering from a raucous bash the night before with some of his big-time corporate lawyer friends.

The recipe was simple: Look up a real recipe and then decide not to follow it.

After a trip to Ellwood Thompson's and then on to Penzeys Spices we were ready to cook.

Veggies and herbs were chopped and diced

A variety of cherry, Brandywine and Goliath tomatoes went into the pot skins and allAfter 20 minutes of simmering we took this delicious looking pot of goodness and poured it through a waiting colander into a big salad bowl (all because we don't own or admittedly even know what a food mill is). From there the tomatoes, spices (secret blend), celery, onion, red wine and unrefined oil olive were poured into Sean's crockpot, without his consent because he was still sleeping at this point.

It turns out that a crockpot won't give a roiling boil...full mixture back into the pot on the stove...

Yes that is a carrot in the pot. A little traditional Italian trick apparently is using a full carrot to sweeten tomato sauce in lieu of adding sugar. While Sean may feel that nothing beats adding cups and cups of processed sugar to food or at the very least pouring corn syrup into things liberally, the rest of us at 2703 prefer a more natural path.

Great success! After hours and hours of simmering the sauce was ready to eat. The first meal consisted of some think spaghetti with the sauce poured over it and then covered with a mix of Parmesan and mozzarella cheese as it baked in the oven for 20 minutes prior serving. It was wonderful and definitely worth the wait and the work.

Sean probably microwaved some Ragu and poured it over Kraft noodles for dinner last night...