I thought I would post this recipe because it has quickly become one of my favorites. I have many tutorials of canning on my blog, but this is one of the better ones. Preperation and survival Tomato sauce is on the agenda for today. WARNING: This takes a while to make. Set aside half a day. At the end I will give the recipe and amounts in case you want to make a smaller batch for dinner one night. Step 1: Onion Onion Onion. Chop 4 onions, size is determined by your preference. Step 2: Saute Onion in 1/2 cup olive oil, until translucent. This takes about 20 minutes. Optional step 2.5: If you like garlic, now is a good time to add 6 cloves, or my way, an estimated amount of powder. Step 3: After onions saute, dump 45-50 (15 pounds) cut up, skinned, tomatoes in your pot. Yes, trust me, it was hard to deal with a pot overflowing with tomatoes, but it does get easier. Step 4: Add your spices. I used a tablespoon Italian seasoning, with the addition of 1 tablespoon of basil. Also have 2 tablespoons salt and 1 tablespoon pepper. Step 5: Random old bottle of red wine, yes please! Officially the recipe calls for 1 bottle. Mine was about 2/3 full and the sauce turned out great. Step 6: Bring to a simmer and wait. You can see after the tomatoes heat up, they release a lot of liquid which steams off, and the whole pot of stuff gets more manageable. My recipe says it should take about 2 hours. I have to disagree and say it took me almost 3. Step 7: Near the end I added some orange juice to increase the acidity of the sauce simply because I am water bath canning the jars, and I don't want botulism filled tomato sauce 3 years from now. So Add some sort of acid juice for increased comfort levels. Step 8: Fill jars Step 9: Set times for 35 minutes and boil away in the water bath canner. Mm mm mm, mighty fine tomato sauce if you ask me. I'm glad to have this recipe added to my list of stuff to can.
Being part Italian, I would say use Roma tomatoes for your marinara.... I would also suggest sweet onions, fresh garlic, basil, oregano and thyme. if you like it just a tad spicy ancho chili paste, and any citrus juice will work. Now if you should have acid reflux like myself when you are warming your marinara to go on your pasta I suggest a 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar to tone the acity down, the more sauce you are using the more dbs you use and to make your sauce thicker when you cook it use powderd arrowroot, or masa flour and make a rue with melted butter and whisk into your sauce.........as for a wine in your sauce I would use whatever it is you usually like except if the bottle says thunderbird or MD 20/20..........LOL.
Ammon, Thanks for posting that. It looks great. I have a question though to you and to Disciple - - aren't the tomatoes acidic enough without adding citrus? Not that I'm opposed to adding the citrus juice, just asking.
