Articles
![ripe heirloom tomatoes 2014[71] ripe heirloom tomatoes](https://deehobsbawnsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ripe-heirloom-tomatoes-201471-scaled.jpeg)
A harvest vastly smaller than I expected – albeit with very few incidences of blossom stem end rot – meant that I had to go looking for additional fruit to feed my tomato habit. (Each fall I like to make roasted tomato sauce – more on that in a minute – and my paternal grandmother Doris’s southern Ontario sweet and spicy tomato chili sauce, dynamite with eggs and grilled pork. That recipe another time.)

This sauce is money in the bank for a busy cook – it is ready RIGHT NOW, needing only thawing, as the best-ever pizza sauce, pasta sauce, soup base, and all-purpose ingredient in any dish requiring tomato sauce, from Bolognese to butter chicken.
Last fall, and again this summer, that tomato sauce featured prominently in al fresco pizza suppers enjoyed with friends in the shade of the maple tree. Having the sauce in my freezer meant that my prep time was reduced, allowing me to enjoy a glass of wine with our friends. After more than a year of isolation, those pizzas symbolize the beauty and collegiality of the table, antidote in small part to the violence of how tomatoes came to European cooks. So first we eat. (Find my recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce in the Recipes archive!) Then we pour another glass of wine and debate ways to grow the best tomatoes.
![Taste Canada Gold_Seal[60] Taste Canada Book Awards Finalist](https://deehobsbawnsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Taste-Canada-Gold_Seal60.jpg)

