Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you my homemade spaghetti sauce recipe that I have canned this week, and it is so GOOD! You know, there is no store bought sauce that will even come close to the flavor of this homemade sauce. But to get that flavor, you must use tomatoes that you’ve grown yourself or purchased from a farmer’s market or a pick your own field.
I always can my spaghetti sauce, but you could just make up a batch of fresh sauce and take advantage of homegrown tomatoes that are so readily available right now. And you could easily freeze the sauce instead of canning it. But I always can mine because once you make your initial investment in your equipment and jars then it is very economical to do so.
But what makes it even more economical for us is that we have about 75-80 tomato plants! And you can betcha that I’m going to preserve those tomatoes!
Our tomato plants have been especially productive for us this year with each bush giving us at least 20 or so tomatoes. The steady rain along with the dead fish and crushed eggshells that we added to each hole have certainly paid off in a bountiful crop. You can read more about that in the post called Our Tomato Planting Tips.
We have sooooooo many tomatoes right now. These are just a few that we picked yesterday and they just keep coming. So I’ve been doing a lot of canning this week, but I’m going to stop long enough to give you my spaghetti sauce recipe.
You will need about 25 pounds of fresh tomatoes, and the first thing you will need to do is to get the skins off those babies! Wash your tomatoes and dip them into a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute. Don’t leave them in any longer because you don’t want to cook your tomatoes, you just want their skins to split.
Immediately plunge them into ice cold water. You can see that the skin will slip off easily.
Before you know it, you will have a sink full of split-skinned tomatoes!
The next step is to remove the skins and the core. If the tomatoes are large, cut them into quarters. By the way, the yellow tomatoes are called Lemon Boys. Although they look like lemons, they are really sweet tasting tomatoes!
Bring the tomatoes to boil over medium high heat. Be sure to keep stirring the tomatoes because you do not want them to burn on the bottom!
To quickly break down the tomatoes, I use a flat metal spatula to chop them as they are cooking. Turn down the heat and allow the tomatoes to cook for 20 minutes or so but remember to keep stirring!
Meanwhile, peel and cut 4 onions into quarters.
I put mine in the food processor, but if you don’t have one, finely chop them.
Add the chopped onions to the sauce and stir. I’ve found that a long-handled wooden spoon is very useful for all this stirring!
Wash four green peppers. Here you see 5, but mine came out of the garden and they were on the small side.
I cut my peppers into chunks and then threw them in the food processor.
Add the chopped peppers to the sauce and stir some more!
Now we like our spaghetti sauce nice and garlicky, so I use a whole head of garlic. But you may want to adjust the amount of garlic to your taste.
Finely mince the garlic and add it to the sauce. Don’t forget to stir!
To thicken the sauce, I add 2 cans of tomato paste. You could omit this step, but you’d have to let your sauce cook for a few hours to reduce the amount of water in the tomatoes. Besides, I think the paste gives the sauce a richer taste.
Let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes while stirring constantly. Then add your spices. I use 2 tablespoons dried oregano, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, 1 tablespoon dried rosemary, and 2 tablespoons dried basil. Now this is a real secret ingredient: 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce! Gives it a real depth of flavor! Simmer the sauce for an additional 10 minutes while you get out all of your canning gear. Sterilize 8 quart sized jars in hot water and place new lids in a pan of simmering water. Screw bands need to be washed but not warm.To be on the safe side, add 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice to each jar to raise the acidity of the sauce. Using a wide mouth funnel, add the sauce to each jar, wipe the rim of each jar with a clean, damp towel and add the lids. Screw the bands on with your fingertips.
Meanwhile, fill a water bath canner half full of water. Lower the jars into the canner and bring the water to a boil. Process the jars for 40 minutes, beginning the timing when the water starts to boil.
At the end of the 40 minutes, remove the jars from the canner using a jar lifter and place them on a clean, kitchen towel on the counter. Allow them to cool for 12-24 hour. Check to make sure each jar has sealed properly.
In the middle of the winter, you’ll still be able to taste the summer flavor of fresh tomatoes in your homemade sauce!
Source: Cottage At The Crossroads
