Well, it's that time of year where all good italians become crazed with finding the best price for a bushel of tomatoes. Oh to hold the honour of getting them for even $0.05 cheaper than your aunt who knows a guy who knows another guy....

And for what? It's a ton of work. First you have to put them individually upside down on a board until you need them. I think there's a ripening reason for this and I probably buy them ripe enough and can skip this step, but far be it from me to actually mess with tradition. Then you have to wash them and all of the jars! Next, cut out the navely part where the stem was, boil them, drain them - don't even think about under-draining or you end up with watery sauce and then you are the shame of all the cuginis and they talk about it for years to come - this shame is not dulled by the fact that you got the best price either! Then comes putting them through the "sauce machine", which is an archaic, hand-cranked apparatus handed down from your grandfather's grandfather that separates the skin, seeds and sauce. It invariably is missing some kind of part that causes a lot of sauce to shoot out of places it shouldn't, making a mess of your clothes and the floor (hence why you see most doing this in their garage).

Once it's done, pour it into jars and seal. Then comes a lot of clean-up and more than a few glasses of wine before collapsing into bed. Why do we put ourselves through this? Well, cuz it's all natural, you made it yourself and when you spice it up according to the particular sauce you are making with it.................. it's pure heaven!