Fresh Italian Tomato Sauce for Canning

It’s easier than you think.

INGREDIENTS

20 pounds of Roma Tomatoes[1]

2 medium onions

2-6 garlic cloves-to taste or Substitute 3 tablespoons Tastefully Simple Garlic-Garlic

Scant 1/2 cup of Good Olive Oil

2-187 mL Merlot Red Wine[2]

3 Tablespoon Italian Herb Mix-I prefer Penzy’s as it is very good quality.

2 Tablespoon Dried Sweet Basil-also from Penzy’s

4 Bay Leaves

2 Teaspoon of Ground Stevia[3]

2 Teaspoon Sea Salt-for low sodium users, but it is still marvelous,add to your              taste. You really don’t need any salt to can this.

Fresh ground pepper mélange to taste-black will be adequate if no mélange is available.

1 Teaspoon High Quality Cocoa Powder[4]

1 Teaspoon ground red pepper flake.  Just process with the flat blades of you magic bullet or other such grinder.

INSTRUCTIONS

Tomato Pereparation

Use the large jar on a magic bullet, or a blender.  I prefer the magic bullet as it pulverizes them better, but you can get more in the blender.  Clean the roma tomatoes, and take most of the seeds out ( don’t worry if they don’t all come out.) 

I leave the skins on the tomatoes, as they are pulverized in the processor. This dramatically increases the lycopene in the sauce; as the skins are where most of it is.  It also reduces the preparation time.  You won’t even know the skins are in there.  Along with a couple of bullets full I will throw in the onions and garlic, if used, to also pulverize.  That way all those finicky eaters will not even know they are there (read grandson here.)

I squish as many tomatoes into the jar of the bullet as possible, and shove the blades into the jar and whip it up.  If you are using a blender, don’t pack it in like that as it won’t process as easily.  There may be some small chunks, but they will cook down, and disappear. Pour this into a non-resistive pan, like ceramic, or enamel or Teflon (without scratches).  You do not want to cook tomatoes in a metal pot, as they pick up the metallic taste, yuk.  Tomatoes are extremely acidic, and will actually begin to corrode a metal pot, which is what gives it a metallic taste when cooked for as long as this sauce will need to cook.

Once all the tomatoes, onions and garlic are ground up, I add all the rest of the ingredients.  Let this cook uncovered for at least 2 hours or more, until it is reduced to a consistency that you like.  Make sure that you stir this occasionally as it might burn, but if the heat is low enough to prevent it from splattering all over the stove, then it shouldn’t stick or burn.  I will taste this about 1 hour into the cooking, and adjust the seasoning.  Make sure you let this cook in a while before going to the next step.

This is enough for about 7 pints.  You will process these according to the instructions found on-line from USDA or the Ball Blue book.  I will add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the can.  Some things to think of are removing the air bubbles with a knife or tool designed for this, by running it down the sides of the jar; fill jar leaving ½ inch head space.  Sanitize the jars and tools by placing them in the boiling water of the canner, I just leave the empty jars in the water until I’m ready to fill them. 

If you want to make more, just increase the seasonings accordingly.  I find this to be an excellent size for how my home garden produces tomatoes.  By the end of the season I will have about 28 pints, with very little effort.  I use an organic growing method, so my tomatoes don’t require enormous amounts of cleaning.  If you use commercially grown tomatoes, clean them well.  I would even remove the skins from those, just to reduce the amount of pesticides that I ingest.

Ideas for Use

I add ground beef to mine for meat sauce.  I make spaghetti and baked zucchini boats.  This is also good as a sauce for chicken or veal parmesan.  Recipes on the way shortly, just have to make them so I have pictures for the recipes. 

I always leave a little out for a meal instead of canning it all.  This is wonderful the next day; it actually improves with age, as do most tomato based sauces.  

Enjoy.  

---

[1] You can use others but they all have more water, so add a few more pounds of tomatoes, and longer cooking time. I did find that having some sweeter tomatoes like early girls and grape in the batch improved the taste a bit.

[2] I use two of the bottles from the small 4 pack bottles; the sauce is richer because of this.

[3] This is Green powder, but white powder if adequate if it isn’t available; this cuts acid in tomatoes without added calories.

[4] Use this in all your tomato based sauces, soups and stews to add a rich flavor to the sauce, but no chocolate taste.