Fresh enchilada sauce. Who knew it was this easy?! Well, I did. But only after I read about it on the Mija Chronicles food blog. I make this any and every time I want enchilada sauce. ** Except that I frequently use a can of tomatoes as I don’t always have enough fresh ones to hand.

I recently made fresh tomato sauce with some extremely ripe tomatoes from the farmers market. Phew! No good food gone to waste. But shortly thereafter, what should appear but five more overripe, on-their-way-out, juicy red tomatoes. Am I not eating enough salad? Didn’t I just buy these guys?

Fresh enchilada sauce:

Ripe tomatoes (or a large can of unsalted tomatoes)
3-6 cloves garlic (about 3 cloves for every five tomatoes)
fresh jalapenos–I was out, so used the jar version
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop the tomatoes roughly and toss them in the blender. You should peel and deseed them for perfect sauce. ** I HARDLY EVER do this on a week night. I usually chuck it all in, skins and seeds and all.

2. Roughly chop a few cloves of garlic and a deseeded jalapeno. Add as much jalapeno as you like for mild or spicy sauce. If you are unsure, start with less. You can add more spice but you can’t take it away.

3. Add the garlic and jalapeno to the tomatoes in the blender and blitz. You now have a strawberry-colored tomato pulpy mess that smells fantastic.

4. Heat up a heavy frying pan with a generous glug of olive oil. When oil is hot pour in the blitzed tomato mix, heat till it’s nice and bubbly and then turn the heat down to simmer and cover. In a sense, you are frying or sautéing the sauce.

5. Cook this until it turns from the pale pink color to a deep red. About 20 min. Add in salt and pepper to taste.

I used mine for some kale and three-cheese enchiladas, which I will post about soon.