Tomato Sauce

First a couple of unrelated notes:
1 Things that happen on twitter: Furmint Day is coming up on 10/23. Suggestions more than welcome.
2 I don't write for the UCPress blog, but take a look there for more on what is going on in our office, including the Twain autobiography and some mentions of my titles as well including Reading Between the Wines, the book reviewed by my mother earlier in the summer. http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/?p=11231
3 Serving my daughter home baked bread with homemade jam makes me feel good.

Now, onto the tomatoes!


Indeed, 40 more pounds for sauce and juice. And more company in the kitchen: today we were joined by Molly and Valeria, along with Molly's daughter Daisy to hang out with K. Which is a good thing because with their long processing time and lack of cupfuls of sugar, tomatoes are not K's favorite thing to can. Last year we made our sauce with San Marzanos from Mariquita. Sadly, they are yet to be available, so we used 2 boxes of their Early Girls along with a third case Lisa picked up at the market.

The sauce we made is very basic. We do this so it can be personalized at home whether by adding sausage or mushrooms or olives. The recipe below is adapted from one we learned at a tomato class taught by Happy Girl Kitchen several years ago. Their sauce calls for quite a few roasted red peppers and after experimenting we decided we liked a more basic and versatile sauce.


Tomato Juice and Sauce

40 pounds tomatoes, blanched, peeled and roughly chopped
4 T olive oil
4 cups chopped onion
8 cloves garlic, minced
Herbs of choice, minced finely to taste We used basil, thyme, and oregano
Salt
Pepper

Blanch, peel and chop tomatoes. Place in a non reactive pot, probably several, and bring tomatoes to a boil, stirring frequently. Continue to simmer for about 15 minutes until juices release.
To make juice, skim off juices with a ladle and strain. Fill jars and finger seal. Process for 35 minutes per pint or 40 minutes for quarts.

To continue with sauce, add chopped onions to a pan with olive oil. Continue to cook until well cooked down. Add garlic and continue to saute, until onion is translucent and garlic is fully cooked. Add herbs and cook until heated through. Add to sauce and continue to simmer until well combined. Continue to cook until sauce is at desired consistency, 2-3 hours or so. Ladle into jars, finger seal and process 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts.

We ended up with 12 pints of sauce, 51/2 quarts of juice.