Spagetti sauce - Member Recipes - Member Recipes

Heres what we use…

Ingredients
Yield: 7 pints

Tomatoes – about 20 lbs (yes, you need a big basketful – you remove the skins, seeds and a lot of the water, so it takes a lot to start.)
Spaghetti sauce mix or your own seasonings. The Mrs. Wages, Ball or Harvest spaghetti sauce mix sells for about $2.00 to $4.00 per packet. A packet will make about a 7 pint jars. See step 7 below for making your own seasonings.
Equipment
1 Water bath Canner (a huge pot to sterilize the jars after filling (about $30 to $35 – $30 at mall kitchen stores and local “big box” stores. Note: we sell many sizes and types of canners for all types of stoves and needs – see canning supplies). Tomatoes are on the border between the high-acid fruits that can be preserved in a boiling-water bath and the low-acid fruits, vegetables and meats that need pressure canning
Pint canning jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at Publix, Kroger, Safeway and local “big box” stores – about $8 per dozen jars including the lids and rings). Be sure to get wide mouth jars to fit the pickles in! Pint size works best!
Lids – thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.
Rings – metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. They may be reused many times.
Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the boiling water where you sterilize them. ($2 at mall kitchen stores and local “big box” stores, but it’s usually cheaper online from our affiliates)
1 large pot.
Large spoons and ladles
Jar funnel ($3-Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local “big box” stores; sometimes even hardware stores)

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Process – How to Make Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Step 1 – Selecting the tomatoes
It’s fun to go pick your own and you can obviously get better quality tomatoes!

At right is a picture of tomatoes from my garden – they are so much better than anything from the grocery store. And if you don’t have enough, a pick-you-own farm is the pace to go! At right are 4 common varieties that will work:

Top left: Beefsteak Top right: Lemon Boy, yellow
Bottom left: Roma, paste-type Bottom right: Better Boy

The picture at right shows the best variety of tomato to use: Roma; also called paste tomatoes. They have fewer sides, thicker, meatier walls, and less water. And that means thicker sauce in less cooking time!

Also, you don’t want mushy, bruised or rotten tomatoes!

Step 2 – Removing the tomato skins
Here’s a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 – 45 seconds is usually enough)

then….

Plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water.

This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes! If you leave the skins in, they become tough and chewy in the sauce, not very pleasant.

Step 3 – Removing seeds and water
After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half. Now we need to remove the seeds and excess water.

Step 4 – Squeeze of the seeds and water
Just like it sounds: wash your hands then squeeze each tomato and use your finger or a spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds. You don’t need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do.

Step 5 – Drain the tomatoes
Toss the squeezed (Squozen? tomatoes into a colander or drainer, while you work on others. This helps more of the water to drain off. You may want to save the liquid: if you then pass it through a sieve, screen or cheesecloth, you have fresh tomato juice; great to drink cold or use in cooking! By draining the water off now, you’ll end up with a thicker spaghetti sauce in less cooking time! And that preserves vitamins (and your sanity).

FYI, the 20 pounds of raw, fresh, whole tomatoes you started with should produce about 7 – 9 pints of “squeezed” tomatoes

Step 6 – Get the jars and lids sterilizing
The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a “sterilize” cycle. I get that going while I’m preparing everything else, so it’s done by the time I’m ready to fill the jars.

Be sure to let it go through the rinse cycle to get rid of any soap!

Lids: Put the lids into a pan of boiling water for at least several minutes.

Note: everything gets sterilized in the water bath (step 7)
anyway, so this just helps to ensure there is no spoilage later!)

Step 7. Mix or your own seasoning?
Either works equally well. The spaghetti sauce mix (see the Amazon.com box below) for canning has the advantage of being tested and VERY easy to use. It’s basically a type of corn starch, onion powder, salt and seasoning. It doesn’t have any preservative to improve the canning, so the advantage is just that it is easier and safe. Remember, this recipe is for NO meat! (see this page for directions for spaghetti sauce with meat)

Otherwise, this slightly modified version of the Ball Blue Book recipes works well:

2 cups chopped fresh onions (then sauté or microwave them until they are soft) 3 Tablespoons of oregano
3 clove of garlic, minced 3 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons diced, fresh OR dried basil 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped celery (optional, may be too strong for some folk’s tastes) 2 Tablespoons chopped red sweet peppers
2 teaspoon salt (optional – I don’t put any in!) 1/4 cup lemon juice (helps to acidify it, not necessary if you have a pressure canner)
1/4 cup red wine (optional) I think a little burgundy makes it!)

And if you like your spaghetti sauce thick, add either tomato paste – 1 or 2 small cans should do it,

A note about spices: Less spice, especially garlic and onions in canned sauce is better. They tend to strengthen and sometimes become bitter in storage. So use less when you prepare the sauce and add more when you actually use it, if you want!

Step 8 – Combine and bring the sauce to a gentle simmer
Combine the tomatoes and spices together in a big pot. There’s generally no need to add liquid, most types of tomatoes have so much water, we will need to boil it down to drive off much of the water to thicken the sauce. If your tomatoes are watery, boil it down before you add the spices, to avoid them becoming too strong.

You don’t need to overcook it; just bring it to boiling to sterilize it, mix the seasonings and cook down the tomatoes.

As they cook, the tomatoes will fall apart into sauce with out much need of mushing!

Step 9 – Fill the jars with sauce and put the lid and rings on
Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, seat the lid and hand-tighten the ring around them.

NOTE: if you want to freeze the sauce instead, just fill your freezer containers (I like Ziploc freezer bags in the quart size), fill them completely, eliminate air pockets, seal them and pop them in the freezer. You’re done!

Be sure the contact surfaces (top of the jar and underside of the ring) are clean to get a good seal!

Step 10 – Process (Boil) the jars in the canner
Put them in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts.

If you have a pressure canner, use it and process the sauce for the time in the tables below, as appropriate for your altitude, jar size and type of canner. Note that these times are from the USDA’s recipe which is slightly different, but since the Ball recipe is safe in a pressure canner, this should work in a pressure canner.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat in a dial-gauge pressure canner.
Canner Gauge Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack Jar Size Process Time 0 – 2,000 ft 2,001 – 4,000 ft 4,001 – 6,000 ft 6,001 – 8,000 ft
Hot Pints 20 min 11 lb 12 lb 13 lb 14 lb
Quarts 25 11 12 13 14

Table 2. Recommended process time for Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat in a weighted-gauge pressure canner.
Canner Gauge Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack Jar Size Process Time 0 – 1,000 ft Above 1,000 ft
Hot Pints 20 min 10 lb 15 lb
Quarts 25 10 15

2 jars Prego Traditional, 2 lbs. hamburger, 1 can mushrooms, half large onion, 1 Tbl. spoon basil, 1 Tbl. spoon Oregano.

On stove use large skillet add: burger, diced half onion, put Tbl. spoons of the Oregano & basil in palm of your hand
rub hands together to mix & smash over the top of burger in skillet!! you will not believe the flavor & aroma (sp) this will add to your burger. I use the end of wooden spoon to break up burger so that it is crumbled. Brown burger to your liking. Drain.
In sauce pan add burger mixture, mushrooms, we like to small cans, & 1 1/2 jars of prego. & add some water to prego jar 1-2 cups shake well add to sauce.

Simmer: sauce & burger mixture for 30 minutes. While your spagetti is boiling.

Cook & drain spagetti. 10 minutes only as simmered will be hot.

In 2nd bowl add remaining sauce & 2 cups of simmered sauce.
Put in micro to warm.

Put drained Spagetti back in pan. Pour Simmered sauce over the top. mix & cover

From micro set out remaining sauce as some like a little sauce & some like alot.

serve with garlic bread & salad.

Deer burger works awesome too!

I make this every year at turkey camp.
Great leftover.

Good luck, Phil