Tomatoes growing outside my apartment. Yay. We planted chilies and basil too. It's great. Click the photo to see the large version as it came out of my camera (3008x1960px).
How to make tomato sauce? It's really easy! Just follow this as a guideline:
You need:
Onions.
Fresh tomatoes.
Basil.
Chili.
Salt.
Garlic (optional).
Cut up onions in thin slices.
Add them to a large pot with olive oil.
Cook them soft.
Add basil, chili pepper and garlic. If you use garlic, be sure only to use a little tiny bit.
Cut up the tomatoes in small chunks. Add to pot. Be sure to use all the liquid too.
Add salt and possibly more basil for your taste.
Let it simmer for a while, maybe 10-20 minutes. Or until your pasta is ready and you don't want to wait any longer. The worst that can happen by not waiting long enough is that you'll have chunkier tomato pieces instead of a smooth "sauce".
(Viridiana and I learned this from an old Daft Punk music video ... :-) )
Ah yes, a garden. That is one reason why I can't wait to get a house. It's a must have, looking at what you get in the local grocery store that is supposed to be fresh and is sold at $2 for the smallest amount makes me want it even more!
Most of our produce here in Southern California is actually pretty good; if you go to the farmers markets anyway. I always wonder who the grocery store sells so many apples from New Zealand. What's up with that?
It seems expensive sometimes, yes, but compared to other aspects of the cost of living equation it's not that bad.
Oh, and this just to remind you not to eat meat:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/753195.asp?cp1=1
Or chicken: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-matter15jul15.story (free registration required I think)
Seems like my first house needs to be a huge ranch with my own cattle then :-) And a big lake for all the fish we started eating lately ;-)