Homemade Garden Pizza Sauce

I LOVE pizza, and we make it at home all of the time. I usually make the sauce myself with just canned whole tomatoes, because it is so incredibly easy. And seriously delicious. But with an over-abundance of yummy tomatoes from the garden, why would I bother with canned?

The results were AMAZING. And it was so easy!

I used a fair amount of golden pear tomatoes, and small plum tomatoes. They are pretty teeny, so I used a bunch... but they are also very sweet tasting tomatoes, which taste fantastic in this sauce. You can use regular tomatoes, though!

I also used shallots, lots of garlic, olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and a good handful of a bunch of fresh herbs... basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary, to be exact. You can use dried, but the fresh ones taste amazing if you happen to have them growing.

I cooked everything on the grill, since it's about 1,000 degrees outside and I don't want my kitchen any hotter than it already is.

I used part of my broiler pan from my oven to cook my tomatoes on... I just wrapped it in foil, since I don't want any of my drippings to escape (I don't want to lose any bit of the yummy!). You can use a foil tray, or a grill pan wrapped in foil, I'd just recommend that you use something with a bit of an edge to prevent oil leaking off the sides and causing flare ups.

Then I start preheating my grill... I turn it on high and let it get super hot. This isn't really a very particular science. If you're using the oven, I usually roast tomatoes at about 450, and tomatoes this size take about 15-20 minutes. On the grill it takes about 10 tops.

This is pretty simple. You basically want everything about the same size so that it'll all roast at the same rate... so I sliced my plum tomatoes in half lengthwise, and left the pear tomatoes be (minus cutting off nasty spots on a few of them)

Lay all of your tomatoes out on your tray, and load it up with minced garlic, thinly sliced shallots, salt, pepper, and lots of olive oil. (Hold off on the herbs, for now) Toss it all with your hands so that everything is pretty evenly coated.

Then it goes on the grill!

your tomatoes are ready. And pretty amazing... I'm hungry just looking at this picture.

Take it inside and scrape everything into a pot, even the little bits that may stick to the foil. Take a potato masher and smush everything up really well, and use some tongs to pull out the tomato skins (or not, depends on how lazy you are... if you don't I don't think it'd be the end of the world, I know I certainly missed some)

Once you have everything mashed up pretty good, add more olive oil. I'm not much for measuring, but I probably added another 1/4 cup.

Mince up your herbs and toss them in, and let everything simmer on low for a good 20 minutes or so, stirring often so nothing burns.

And that easy, your sauce is totally ready to top your pizza! Or even toss in some pasta, that would be pretty good too. Enjoy!