When life gives you tomatoes make spaghetti sauce. And recently, life has been giving me tons of tomatoes! I've made spaghetti sauce several times over the past few months and I have ended up canning all of it. I'll have plenty of tomato sauce to get me through the winter. So, this got me thinking. Why not for this week's Tasty Tuesday I make spaghetti sauce and then have a short tutorial on how to can and preserve food. If you are using fresh tomatoes like me you may want to drain some of the excess water from them (see below) so your sauce won't be too runny.
Once colder weather comes and subsequently ends my role in the garden I planned to start blogging about food preservation anyway but I might as well start now. So, if you are looking for an easy spaghetti sauce recipe or looking for a short tutorial on canning use this recipe. Feel free to ask questions too. There is a lot to learn. Look for more posts about food preservation in the coming weeks!
1/2 cup olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 small carrot
About 10 tomatoes (skin removed and crushed) You can also substitute canned tomatoes.
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of fresh oregano (or 2 tablespoons of fresh)
To remove skin from tomatoes:
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop tomatoes in a few at a time. Once the tomato skin starts to crack and loosen, remove the tomatoes and plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Remove skin and place the now skinless tomatoes in a bowl. Over time, water will collect in the bottom of the bowl. Drain the water before you add the tomatoes to the sauce.
To make the sauce:
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Saute until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the carrot, salt and pepper, and let cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the crushed tomatoes (or canned tomatoes), bay leaves, and all the spices. Simmer for about an hour until the sauce has thickened. If you want your sauce to be a little less chunky, blend the sauce (in small batches) until you reach the desired consistency.
- You can eat immediately or store in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
- If you choose to can and preserve your sauce read below.
The canning process:
- Canning takes a little time to master but it is really easy once you learn the basics. Keeping everything clean is the key to successful canning. Do not touch any part of the jar, lids, or jar rings during the process. You may want to invest in a quality pair of kitchen tongs for this.
- Fill a large pot (at leaste a 5 gallon pot) with water and bring to a boil. You will need enough water to cover the jars completely. Once the water begins to boil, add your jars and lid rings to the boiling water (using tongs) and allow them to sterilize for no less than 10 minutes. Your jar lids can be placed in the boiling water too but some resources advise against this as it may affect the seal of the jar. So, instead, place the jar lids in a small pot of water that is heated on low heat if you desire.
- After the jars have been sterilized, carefully remove them form the water, and set aside. Pour the spaghetti sauce into the jars leaving about an inch of headspace, clean any excess that may have spilled onto the threads of the jar, place the lids on the jars, followed by the jar rings, and place the jars back into the water bath to process for 40 minutes. It is recommended that you process tomatoes for no less than 40 minutes but canning other items usually takes less than 10 minutes.
- Once the jars have been process for 40 minutes, remove them from the water bath and allow them to cool over night. The jars should have a tight seal by this point.
Placing tomatoes in a pot of boiling water will allow you to remove the skin easily.
Skinless tomatoes
Crushed tomatoes
Saute the onions and carrots.
The sauce after it has simmered for 1 hour
The water bath for canning and sterilizing
Take care of yourself and each other...
I am so excited about this week's post. I have found sauce recipes for all our leftover tomatoes but never with enough instruction to feel like I could do it! Now I can branch out from chili! Do certain kinds do better for sauces?
ReplyDeleteHey! This year I grew over 20 varieties of tomatoes and I've used them all to make sauce so I will have to say that variety doesn't matter (some may argue). I would just make sure you squeeze out enough of the water. Some varieties hold more water than others.
ReplyDelete