Just picked: When life hands you tomatoes, make tomato sauce

John Speare’s Sicilian mother-in-law has 18 tomato plants and “gobs of fresh basil.”

When she cooks, she doesn’t really measure. So it’s been a bit of a challenge for him to document her recipes, an undertaking he started several years ago.

“It’s always an approximation, which makes it even more fun,” said Speare, 45.

One of the things he’s learned from watching her cook is that tomato sauce doesn’t have to be a thick and meaty.

Based on her methods, he’s developed a “really wonderful, light, fresh approach to pasta that is more southern/Sicilican.” The recipe features fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, abundant this time of year. They’re roasted, then run through a food mill.

Speare’s posted the recipe at johndogfood.com.

He also writes a bicycling blog at cyclingspokane.blogspot.com and posts additional recipes at cyclingfoodspokane.blogspot.com.

Cooking runs in his family. His mom, Char Zyskowski, owned Apple Charlotte Cooking and Catering Co. in Spokane and held culinary classes in her South Hill home until she died in 2010. After that, Speare helped put many of her recipes online at applecharlottecooking.com.

His mother-in-law, 78-year-old Maria Nocito, hails from Alia, Sicily, although the family has since migrated to northern Italy.

Speare has never been. A technical writer for a Seattle-based company, he grew up in Spokane, moved to the West Side for awhile, then returned to the Inland Northwest when his daughter was 1. She’s 13 now.

Speare’s mother-in-law makes her light tomato sauce every autumn, always adding a bit of bullion. Speare prefers salt or vegan or vegetable flavoring.

But, “No matter how many jars we make, we always go through it quickly,” he wrote on his blog. “Making sauce with Maria is sort of the official way to bring in the fall. We make it outside on a cool Saturday or Sunday morning.”

It’s “100 percent better with homegrown tomatoes.”

Roasted Fresh Tomato Sauce

From John Speare of Spokane

2 pounds fresh tomatoes, quartered or halved

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Handful fresh basil leaves

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

½ bullion cube, or salt or vegan/vegetable flavoring equivalent

Fire up the grill. Using heavy-duty foil, make a tray for grilling the tomato mixture. Place the cut-up tomatoes, garlic and basil on the tray. Drizzle with oil. Put the foil tray of tomatoes on the grill for 10 minutes or so, until the edges of the garlic and tomatoes are just beginning to brown.

Carefully remove the tray from the grill. Place the hot tomato mixture into a bowl with the ½ bullion cube or salt. Give the mixture a few stirs to dissolve the seasoning. Run the mixture through a food mill with large holes to remove the skin but still retain some texture.

Serve with pasta or add oregano for a pizza sauce.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings, enough for about ½ pound of pasta.