The time has finally arrived to put up Tomatoes. They seemed to be much later this year but it has been a good crop despite the slow start. Besides making salsa, pico de gallo, buschetta, BLT's, etc. with our tomatoes we also like to make Homemade Tomato Sauce. This is our second batch of sauce which we made last Saturday afternoon after returning from vacation. Needless to say, we had a lot of ripe tomatoes in our garden that needed to be picked.
Besides drying pears the hubs also likes to make tomato sauce so he went right out and started picking. He filled my two gallon pickle buckets to the top with all the ripe tomatoes and then set up the kitchen to begin preparing the sauce. The first step is to gently drop a handful of tomatoes in boiling water. Once the skin splits they are removed and placed in an ice bath.
Unfortunately I was not in the kitchen when he started so there is not a picture however I did arrive in time to help with the last half of the boiling and ice bath.
Once the tomatoes are cooled down in the ice bath they are skinned, cut into quarters and seeded.
The quartered tomatoes are then pureed and garlic and spices are added. The sauce is simmered for several hours.
After it thickens up a bit it is removed from the heat and sits until it reaches room temperature.
At this point we measure the sauce and pour it into freezer bags. This batch made about 5.5 quarts so our total for this year is approximately 11 quarts or 2.75 gallons.
Now that the rain is here and the days are cooler it is the perfect time to get out all of those fall recipes that call for tomato sauce. Comfort food at its best!
Have a Wonderful Wednesday!
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