July Is Peak Tomato Time

Walk past any greengrocer or market stall this week and you'll see them piled high: deep red vine tomatoes, golden yellow heritage varieties, plump little cherry tomatoes in overflowing punnets. Mid-July is the moment British-grown and European tomatoes hit their peak — and that means it's the perfect time to make a big batch of homemade tomato sauce to stock your pantry for the months ahead.

A few jars made now will see you through busy autumn weeknights, serve as the base for soups and stews in November, and keep you well fed all the way into winter. It's one of the most satisfying seasonal cooking projects there is.

What You'll Need

  • Ripe tomatoes — any variety works; plum or vine tomatoes give the richest flavour. Buy more than you think you need.
  • Onions and garlic — the essential flavour base
  • Olive oil — for softening the aromatics
  • Fresh herbs — basil, oregano, or a bay leaf
  • Salt, black pepper, and a pinch of sugar — to balance the natural acidity

How to Make It

  1. Score and blanch the tomatoes: cut a small cross in the base of each, drop into boiling water for 30 seconds, then straight into a bowl of cold water. The skins will slip off easily.
  2. Soften the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about ten minutes — you want them translucent and sweet, not browned.
  3. Add the tomatoes, roughly crushed by hand, along with your herbs and a good pinch of salt and pepper.
  4. Simmer low and slow for 30–45 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the kitchen smells incredible.
  5. Blend with a hand blender if you prefer a smoother texture, or leave it chunky.
  6. Jar it up: pour into sterilised jars leaving 2 cm of headspace, seal tightly, and process in a boiling water bath for 15–20 minutes for shelf-stable jars. Otherwise, cool and freeze in portions.

Frozen sauce keeps well for up to six months; jarred sauce that's been properly processed keeps for up to a year in a cool, dark cupboard.

Roast It First for Extra Depth

For a richer, more complex sauce, skip the blanching and roast your tomatoes instead. Halve them, place cut-side up on a baking tray, drizzle generously with olive oil, add a head of unpeeled garlic, and roast at 200°C for 35–40 minutes until caramelised and slightly charred at the edges. Then proceed as above, squeezing the roasted garlic out of its skins before blending. The difference in flavour is remarkable.

Track Everything With Pantrist

Once your jars are lined up and cooling on the worktop, log them straight into Pantrist. It's all too easy to forget how many jars you made, or to reach the back of a cupboard in January and find something that's been there since the previous summer.

With Pantrist you can:

  • Track your stock count — know exactly how many jars you have left without rummaging through cupboards
  • Set expiry reminders so nothing goes unnoticed or gets wasted
  • Add tomato sauce to your shopping list automatically when stock drops below a certain level
  • Share your pantry with the rest of your household so everyone knows what's available

When the season is over and the price of fresh tomatoes goes back up, you'll be very glad you have a row of homemade sauce on the shelf.

Make the Most of July

The window for genuinely good fresh tomatoes is surprisingly short. Spend a couple of hours in the kitchen this weekend, make a proper batch of sauce, and set Pantrist to keep track of it — your future self in the depths of winter will thank you for it.