Sunday, August 22, 2010

Homemade pasta sauce

It's time. Time to attempt the epic. Canned pasta sauce!!

Dave and I descended upon our you-pick vegetable source, Susie's Garden Patch, for some tomatoes. We got about 12 lb., half beefsteak, half roma. I also used about 3 lb. from my parents' garden. In case you are wondering, this is what 15 lb. of tomatoes looks like:


At the point this picture was taken, I had already boiled the tomatoes and cooled them in ice water. This makes peeling the skins easier. I set up one bowl for the skins, liquid, & seeds, and one big bowl for the tomatoes that will go into the stockpot.

I hadn't really thought about whether all the tomatoes would be able to fit at once in my stock pot, but apparently they did. Sort of.


Yeah, look at that - skinned, traumatized tomatoes shoved into my largest stock pot. Eventually they cooked down, though.

The canning recipe I used suggests some spices to add: sauteed onions, minced garlic, bay leaves, chopped basil, chopped oregano, lemon juice, and even red wine! This is a pasta sauce I can definitely get behind.


In the end, it was the biggest batch of stuff I've ever canned before - 8 pint jars! I'm pretty excited to enjoy this stuff in winter, and also give some away. It's a little chunky, but I hope it's good!

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