Original Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce

One of the best things about late summer is when the fresh produce starts to become available. To me, there is nothing better than a big, juicy tomato fresh out of the garden. Normally, I plant around 200 tomato plants, a whole flat of sweet banana peppers, 12 cucumber, and 6 zucchini. This year there just wasn't time for all that with trying to finish up nursing school, so the garden was reduced down to about 48 tomato, 8 sweet banana, 3 zucchini, and 6 cucumber plants. I usually plant tomatoes that can be made into sauce, but this year I didn't, I figured we wouldn't can, so it was ok. Well, the Manfriend went to Marietta, Ohio to get tomatoes so he and his mom could tomatoes to freeze for winter use when all the stores have those flavorless hothouse tomatoes. He was sweet enough to bring me back close to 80 pounds of cooking tomatoes. Yes, thats right, 80 pounds. What in the world was I going to do with 80 pounds of tomatoes?!? Homemade spaghetti sauce of course!! Canning has really become a lost art. Yes, it is time consuming and you do have to be careful, but it is worth it in the end. After all, how easy is it after a long, busy day to boil some noodles and heat a jar of sauce? You have a wonderful homecooked meal in the time it takes to boil the noodles. 

Normally, we can around 60 quarts of spaghetti sauce during harvest. I knew I wouldn't get quite that much, but its ok since we still have a good bit left over from last year. Since we do large quantities of sauce at a time, we have a food strainer system. It is so handy! Tomatoes go in the top, turn the hand crank while pushing on the tomatoes, strained tomato sauce comes out of one side, and seeds, core, and skin all come out another side. This one is a newer model. Don't mind the packaging, we've had this a few years and it gets used! I remember being a little kid and my parents and grandparents using a very old metal version of this one. 

If you don't have one of these handy little gadgets, you'll have to go the old fashioned route of placing the tomatoes in a big pot of boiling water for one to two minutes. You don't want to cook the tomatoes, so don't leave them in the water longer than 2 minutes. Immediately take them out with a slotted spoon and plunge them into a big bowl, or even sinkful, of ice water. Take the core out, and the skin should peel right off. Chop the tomatoes coarsely and add them to a pot over medium-high heat and crush/stir the tomatoes. If you're serious about canning, you may want to invest in a food strainer. 

One of 3 boxes of tomatoes

Place tomatoes in the top

Sauce in one bowl, waste in another

Roughly 25 pounds of tomatoes in a 10 Liter bowl

80 pounds of tomatoes made a little over 30 liters of sauce

For the cooking stage, I use larger roaster pans. One bowl of sauce (10 liters) into one roaster pan. The day I made sauce, I had 3 roasters simmering. My house smelled delicious! I did 2 versions of sauce. 2 roasters were filled with my parent's recipe, and the remaining roaster I did my own recipe, which I'll post after this one.

One of 3 roasters with sauce simmering

Sophie's favorite spot when I'm cooking

Spaghetti Sauce:

25-28 pounds tomatoes

2 cups sugar

2 cups olive oil or vegetable oil (your preference)

1/2 cup salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil (I had fresh, so I used a handful of leaves chopped)

3  12 ounce can tomato paste

4 onion finely chopped

4 green pepper finely chopped

1 bulb garlic minced

1 cup lemon juice

Roaster set to 225, stir occasionally to avoid scorching. Simmer 2.5 hours

  

I use a food processor to chop the onions, peppers, garlic, and any fresh herbs. The easiest way I've found to make this is to put all the ingredients except the tomato sauce in the roaster pan and stir it all together first, this way the tomato paste is smoothed out and isn't lumpy. Then add the tomato sauce and stir together. I know that it seems like you're using a lot of onion and pepper, but trust me, it is fine. The sauce will also be very watery at first. It really is a must that you cook it at least 2.5 hours so it can cook down and thicken up. I know the lemon juice seems odd, but trust me, you will not taste it. Even though the sauce is acidic, you want the lemon juice to make sure the sauce will be safe to eat. We've made the sauce many times and didn't add the lemon juice, and nothing bad has happened, but I'll play it safe.

Around the 2 hours mark, start getting your canning supplies ready. Boil your canning jars to sterilize them. In a small pan, have your lids in simmering water. I like to place all my jars in the dishwasher and wash them and use the sanitize button to get them ready, just be careful handling the hot jars. 

Fill the jars until you have about an 1/2-inch of head space, wipe off the lip with a wet washcloth, place the lid on and screw the ring on until finger-tight. CAREFULLY place the jars in a canner with boiling water, make sure there is at least an inch of water covering the top of the jar. Process the jars in a full rolling boil for 45 minutes for quarts and 35 minutes with pints.

CAREFULLY remove the jars and place on a cooling rack or a towel. Let them cool overnight, you'll hear the lids popping as they seal. After 12 hours, if there are any that haven't sealed, either reprocess or refrigerate and use immediately.

Label the jars and store them out of sunlight. 

I won't lie, it is a lot of work to do, but it is so rewarding in the end. Hope you enjoy!!