45 Pounds of Tomatoes Made This! #garden #health #recipe

Join me as I share my favorite tomato sauce recipe with you, step by step including the type of tomato to use and canning the finished product!

Recipe:
Ingredients:
45 lbs fresh sauce tomatoes (I use Roma)
6 cups chopped onions
12 cloves garlic
1/2 cup olive oil (I use only first cold pressed)
2 tbsp dry oregano
2 tbsp dry basil
6 bay leaves
1 tbsp black pepper
11/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 c salt
2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional) (I don't use it)
Lemon Juice

Directions:
1.Wash tomatoes
2.Remove blossom ends, quarter and remove the white core in the middle add to a colander to strain as you cut them.
3.Add tomatoes to a large stock pot on a low flame. I add them as I cut them; one colander at a time. Cook until softened and the skin starts to separate from the flesh.
4.Drain the tomatoes and save the juice to use in other recipes.
5.Run the drained tomatoes through a food mill and you will have a beautiful tomato puree. (you can can this as is too!)
6.Heat a large stock pot and add the olive oil.
When the oil is heated, add the onions and cook for a few minutes until they are translucent.
7.Add the chopped garlic and simmer for 30 minutes.
8.Add the bay leaves, sugar, salt, oregano, basil and black pepper. Stir well and let simmer until desired consistency. We cooked ours for about 2 hours on low.
Note: because the tomatoes were drained it cuts back on the amount of time you need to reduce the sauce. A good idea is to cook it to your desired thickness.
9. Have sterilized quart jars ready to go, lids in a pot of simmering water.
10. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice per quart, 1 tbsp per pint.
11. Remove bay leaves from sauce.
12. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars to 1/2" headspace. Stir the sauce as you do this so you get even consistency in the jar.
13. Wipe the rim of the jar very well before adding the lid and band. Tighten band to fingertip tight.
14. Put the jars into a hot water bathe canner, cover with water to 2" above the jars, bring water to a boil and process for 40 minutes.
15. Once the 40 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let the jars sit for 5 minutes.
16. Remove jars from the water, cover with a towel and let sit for 24 hours.
17. Remove band from jars, test and make sure all the lids are securely sealed and wipe down the jars.
18. LABEL, LABEL, LABEL! :0)
19. Store for future use!
#garden #health #recipe