Canned Tomato Sauce

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  • 45 pounds of tomatoes
  • 6 cups chopped onions (I use a food processor for this)
  • 12 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (more to taste)
  • ¼ cup coarse sea salt (more to taste)
  • Bottled lemon juice (2 tablespoons per quart jar)
  • A water bath canner

Wash the tomatoes and remove the ends and any damaged spots. Quarter them and deseed them by running your fingers down the middle and scraping out the bulk of the seeds and juice. Puree the tomatoes in a food processor or blender.

(OR, you can run the tomatoes through a food mill and save yourself a lot of time! When I’m using my food mill, I wash them, remove any bad spots, and that’s it– the machine does the rest.)

Sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil in a large pot. Add the tomatoes, pepper, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer and allow to reduce by about one-half. If you are using very juicy tomatoes, this can take 3-5 hours.

The most important part of homemade tomato sauce is the tasting! Tomatoes greatly differ from variety to variety, so you must taste as you go.

In order to keep the ratios of high acid to low acid foods at a safe level in this recipe, you cannot increase the amount of onions or garlic you use, but you CAN increase the herbs, sugar, or salt.

Once the sauce has reduced by half and the flavor is where you want it to be, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint jar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart jar.

Ladle the sauce into the jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Process pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40 minutes in a hot water bath canner. (Keep in mind that you may have to adjust your processing time according to your altitude.)

REMEMBER: Don’t start timing until the water has returned to a boil with the filled jars inside.

Store your sealed jars in a cool, dark place. I use this all-purpose sauce in all sorts of recipes- add basil and oregano to give it an Italian twist, or add chili powder and cumin for Mexican food.

Notes

  • Most recipes will suggest that you peel the tomatoes before you puree them. Since I despise peeling tomatoes (it’s ok for a handful, but when you’re dealing with 60 pounds of small tomatoes, it’s an utter nightmare), I always just run mine through my food mill instead. In the past when I didn’t have a food mill, I would deseed and then puree them (with the skin on). Sometimes you’ll find a bit of peel in your finished sauce, but I absolutely do not think it’s offensive at all. It’s a small price to pay to avoid the monotony of peeling a million tomatoes.
  • To make this more of an Italian-style sauce, add 3 tablespoons dried oregano and 3 tablespoons dried basil (or to taste)
  • Sugar is important in tomato sauce recipes to help cut the acidity. However, you can leave it out if you  wish.
  • DRIED herbs and spices won’t effect the ratios of this recipe at all, so you can safely remove or add them, according to your own taste.
  • My favorite tomatoes to grow for making canned tomato sauce are Roma or San Marzanos.