i squeeze my tomatoes by hand, add a little olive oil, basil, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and pour over whole wheat pasta.

Luci,

Thank you for thaking the time to give us such useful recipes. I can't wait to try the sauce. More and more, we are either making our food from scratch or just not having it. In case you didn't know, if you have a large amount of tomatoes left at the end of the season and everyone you know is sick of getting them, you can freeze them whole in freezer bags. This is a great alternative to canning. When you are ready to make that great winter chili or vegetable soup, just thaw the tomatoes. The skins will slip right off as if you had blanched them for the 20 seconds. Thanks again. You time spent on our behalf is very appreciated.

Menda

The peel has the most nutrition, why take it off? I never remove my peels, or boil my tomatoes. I just put them whole in the blender, and add sun dried tomato if I want to thicken it.

This seems like a lot of trouble to actually remove the most nutritious part of the tomato before using it... I really don't get it.

I also don't understand why this is called raw when the tomatoes are cooked, even if for a short period of time.

My mother never put tomatoes in boiling water to peel them.  She would insert a fork into their stem and hold them on the gas flame on the stove, turning the fork periodically.  The skin would start to sear and split apart and could be easily removed.  I would think it would use less energy to peel 4 tomatoes over a flame than to bring a large vat of water to boil...  Just a thought!

What a great and simple sauce.  I have a garden loaded with many large tomatoes beginning to ripen.  Here is a thought - this sauce would be great over steamed or sauteed veggies.  I am on Weight Watchers and try to limit my intake of grains, including pastas.  Thanks Luci Lock.  Lynn D.

Apparently almond skins contain high concentrations of tannic acid; research has indicated this may interfere with the body's iron uptake. It could be just in vulnerable individuals though, there are always so many variables in research trials plus of course any spin factor.

Sounds so yummy! I hope that these fresh ripe tomatoes are truly vine-ripened!

Shelf-ripened or gas-ripened, or even organic, though looking good, are sooo nutrient-deficient. Unfortunately the all-important phytonutrients that our cells need are missing unless the fruit (and this is true for all fruit) remain on the plant till truly ripe and ready to eat. As the tomatoes approach maturity, the phytonutrients travel up the roots and stems into the fruit. The ironical thing is that your average fruit is picked green and hard, then artificially 'ripened' close to point of sale to give it a longer shelf life. Then when your nice tomato starts to turn red  it cannot draw on the phytonutrients no matter how hard it tries, because by now the roots and stems, probably a thousand miles away, have already been trashed and hopefully ploughed in.

It is these micronutrients that help give the old-fashioned wonderful flavour and aroma that has signalled that it is now ready for consumption and recycling!

I suppose the moral is... grow your own. And if you can't- buy the best you can. Fresh, raw is best and vine-ripened fresh, raw is best-est!

i want to know what would be the shelf life of the sauce prepared in this way, & what would it be if the tomatoes are used absolutely uncooked.

plus what can we do to increase the shelf life ?