Fresh Tomato Sauce and Cucumber Salad

It's almost summer and it's business time for tomatoes (to be honest it's always business time for tomatoes in my kitchen).  After spending years laying down wads of cash for sunscreen each summer, I recently learned that tomatoes are kind of an ingestible sunscreen.  So now I have a solid reason to want to eat pizza, salsa or spaghetti for every meal during the summer or perhaps for every meal until eternity.

The tomato sauce recipe below is one my family put together while making personal pizzas a few years back.  We make this sauce all the time now and use it with pasta, as pizza sauce, and as part of salad dressing.  I'm a big fan of having it on cucumber salad with falafels from trader joes.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

• 1 quart cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (the kind in oil)
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of hoagie spread/pickled cherry peppers
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Blend until smooth.  Lasts a few days in the fridge.

Cucumber Salad

• 1/2 a cucumber sliced
• 1/2 a red onion sliced thin
• 1/2 a cup of Fresh Tomato Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Toss ingredients together.  Serve with falafels or along side other dishes.