Good Evening Bloggers!
Well, between my share and all the tomatoes in my garden I had to get busy. I made 7 more pints of the salsa which is in a previous post. On a second go it was still very tasty!
I also decided to make sauce. I discussed this with one of our fellow CSA members and decided a little research was in order before I canned my tomatoes as sauce. I started with these instructions:
How to CanTomato Sauce
It seems that if you are canning tomatoes you need to add salt and citric acid or lemon juice. But if making tomato sauce it was not mentioned.
Of course, I did not stick to those instructions 100%! I never do. I used all my tomatoes and removed the skins by blanching them first and then putting in ice water. I did not take the skins off the plum tomatoes as I got bored with the whole process! Next I processed them in my food processor and added loads of garlic (from our share), onions, and a rather large zucchini that I had just picked from my garden. I added Italian spices. I used dried as I decided this was safer than getting this far and finding my basil had turned black in the sauce. All went in the pot pictured above and simmered it for about an hour and a half. Then put in to jars and used the water bath method and processed for 30 minutes. All lids are sealed and I cannot wait to use it this winter.
It does seem like lots of extra work, but I had so many tomatoes and I did not want to waste them. I did a wee tasting along the way and found the freshness of the vegetables really came through in the flavor. Given time, the flavors should mingle well with the herbs and spices.
Well, between my share and all the tomatoes in my garden I had to get busy. I made 7 more pints of the salsa which is in a previous post. On a second go it was still very tasty!
I also decided to make sauce. I discussed this with one of our fellow CSA members and decided a little research was in order before I canned my tomatoes as sauce. I started with these instructions:
How to CanTomato Sauce
It seems that if you are canning tomatoes you need to add salt and citric acid or lemon juice. But if making tomato sauce it was not mentioned.
Of course, I did not stick to those instructions 100%! I never do. I used all my tomatoes and removed the skins by blanching them first and then putting in ice water. I did not take the skins off the plum tomatoes as I got bored with the whole process! Next I processed them in my food processor and added loads of garlic (from our share), onions, and a rather large zucchini that I had just picked from my garden. I added Italian spices. I used dried as I decided this was safer than getting this far and finding my basil had turned black in the sauce. All went in the pot pictured above and simmered it for about an hour and a half. Then put in to jars and used the water bath method and processed for 30 minutes. All lids are sealed and I cannot wait to use it this winter. |
| I use a large pot with boiling water to process the jars |
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| 4 Quarts |
It does seem like lots of extra work, but I had so many tomatoes and I did not want to waste them. I did a wee tasting along the way and found the freshness of the vegetables really came through in the flavor. Given time, the flavors should mingle well with the herbs and spices.
Comments
Just wanted to tell you how I 'peel' tomatoes for freezing, etc. I wash, and core them, and put them into a heavy pot over low heat, until they soften, stirring occasionally to get the top ones down to the heat. I then run them through my food mill which skins and sseeds them. Then I freeze then in pint and quart plastic containers, for fresh tomato flavor all winter, for soups, stews, or sauces. The food mill makes it very easy. I wouldn't be without it. Thanks for your blogs; I enjoy them a lot, and wish more people participated.