If you’re like me, about March you’re ready for some summer produce! Here is the perfect tomato sauce for the height of tomato season (late summer) when tomatoes are cheap, flavorful, and plentiful.

Make sure a grown up does the grating of the tomato, unless you have a rotary grater or food mill like we use in class. This keeps little hands away from the sharp box grater. You don’t use the skin of the tomato for this sauce, only the flesh. This is what allows you to leave this sauce raw. This recipe is perfect for the heat of summer when you don’t want to heat up your stove and kitchen!

We made this recipe in our Radical Red course at the beginning of last summer. It can be a lighter flavor for those eaters that are bored of or uncertain of heavily cooked marinara sauce that is the standard most of the year. Be sure to have plenty of Parmesan and fresh basil for toppings. Toppings often make everything more fun for little eaters. You can explore the smell of the basil. If they want, have them rip little pieces off the leaf and rub them between their fingers to release an explosion of basil scent. They can taste the Parmesan or just give it a smell if they’re not ready.

Happy cooking!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

1 ½ pound ripe tomatoes

1 garlic clove

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

½-1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

⅛ teaspoon black pepper

Favorite pasta for serving

Instructions

1. Cut tomatoes in half. Cut the stem end off your tomato. Carefully grate tomatoes using the large holes on a box grater. Use the skin to protect your hand from the grating. Press gently. Discard skin. 
2. Press your garlic through a garlic press or finely mince. 
3. Stir olive oil, lemon juice, salt, sugar, pepper, and garlic into tomatoes. 
4. Let sauce sit on the counter while you make your pasta. This will help the flavors mix together, but isn’t necessary if your pasta is already ready.