How to Make Fresh Garden Tomato Sauce and Survive Depression by author Cleo Coyle

  

During the Great Depression, my father's father kept his large family fed by working a small farm from which they sold produce. Every spring, my dad helped his father plant 2,000 tomato plants for their family. Years later, when my dad had a family of his own, he continued that tradition, raising more than 100 tomato plants in back of our suburban home for us every summer, without fail.

My late father, Tony Alfonsi, 
with his Italian-born mother (my
grandmother) Grazia. My dad was a

tough guy with a tender heart.
He served in the Army Air Corps
and worked for years in a Pittsburgh
area steel mill. (You can see the mill's
smokestacks in the background.)
Garden tomatoes helped his family

survive the Great Depression.

Fresh garden tomato sauce was always part of that yield. Below is the recipe I now make in my home. The amazing smell of the sauce cooking brings me right back to my childhood and memories of my beloved dad.

The nutrition in freshly cooked tomatoes is a mood lifter, and this process, shared with friends or family, will uplift your spirits, as well.

May you cook it with love and make lifelong memories of your own. 

🍅 ~ Cleo

(aka Alice Alfonsi)

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Cleo's recipe in PDF form.

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WIFE vs. HUSBAND: Cleo Coyle asks, "Is it Sauce or Soup?"

So I was cleaning out the refrigerator—an interesting exercise in culinary archaeology—and I mentioned to my husband, Marc, that I’d found six whole tomatoes in the crisper, and they were in no shape for a salad or garnish. "I hate to throw them out, so if you want to do something with them, be my guest..."

Cleo ponders a solution to
overripe tomatoes.
(BTW, these weren't them.)

How to Make Meatless Italian Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes: A post for my Dad (Tony Alfonsi) by Cleo Coyle

I swear this 2-hour meatless sauce will fool anyone into thinking it was simmered for 6-hours with meat. The rich depth of flavor is amazing and well worth a Saturday afternoon making it the way the "old timers" did. Even if you make it only once in your cooking life, the experience is one you'll never forget.

For those of you who've made pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes, you know the very smell of the sauce cooking is like nothing else on earth. With all my heart, I wanted to experience that little piece of heaven again to bring back some very sweet memories of my father, Antonio "Tony" Alfonsi...

Free Recipe PDF.

To download my recipe now

as a free PDF, click here. 

To continue reading my post 

and recipe, scroll down or click
on the "Read more" link below...