Homemade Tomato Sauce

When we went to my parents' house last weekend, my dad gave me a bunch of Roma tomatoes from the garden so I decided to branch out & try to make homemade tomato sauce Friday afternoon. It sounded like a fun inside thing to do when Jake was napping & it was 100 degrees outside. Has anyone else tried to do this?? Let's just say I definitely appreciate a pretty jar of tomato sauce sitting on the shelf at Kroger a lot more now.

Here we go, 15 - 20 tomatoes.
For those of you who are detailed-oriented and are counting each & every tomato in the picture (I would do it if it were your blog, ha), I want you to rest easy tonight & know that some of these were tiny so I didn't 'count' them. :)

Here are the other ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 bay leaf
Spices (pepper, salt, oregano, Mrs. Dash, fresh basil, etc)... per your preference
1/2 c Red Wine (forgot to add in picture)
Spoonful of Tomato Paste (added at the end to thicken)

Take each tomato & cut a shallow X in the skin so it peels off more easily.
In boiling water, place all the tomatoes for about a minute.
(The skin will start to come off the tomato)

Immediately place the tomatoes in ice cold water to stop the cooking process.
Once cooled, peel off skin.
Chop tomatoes & put in blender to puree.
Cook diced onion & carrots in pot with oil (and maybe a little butter) until tender.

Mix together tomato puree and spices and onion/carrots.
Let simmer 2 hours.
Remove bay leaf.
Add in tomato paste to thicken.
Let simmer another 2 hours.

This pic was when it was simmering during the first 2 hours & the sauce starts to look a little more red (like pretty tomato sauce on the shelf) once you add in the tomato paste.

I thought 15 - 20 tomatoes would make a ton of sauce, but it didn't make as much as I thought it would. I froze this batch. If we ever have a big garden with Roma tomatoes, I'd make the sauce again... but only if I had a TON of tomatoes & could make a big pot of sauce. If you try making some, let me know what you think! Enjoy!