It’s September and tomato season is rapidly coming to an end. We’ve been enjoying the season’s bounty and eaten a good number of, in my opinion, the most delicious fruit of summer. While we’ve enjoyed many tomatoes from my garden freshly picked and sun warmed, I’ve also used them in sandwiches, sauces, and other supper-time delights. Still more have ended up canned in the form of stewed tomatoes, vegetable soup, Sungold tomato jam, or just canned au natural.
I have limited garden space and, while I’m delighted with this year’s harvest, I’ve still purchased forty pounds of tomatoes from the local farmer’s market that I’ve preserved in the form of spaghetti sauce and soup.
Today, I’m sharing the spaghetti sauce recipe I used for the second time this year. I originally got this recipe from a website called Provident Living Today. The only change I made from last year is that I omitted the chili powder from the recipe. Chili powder just doesn’t belong in a sauce I’m going to serve on pasta or spaghetti squash.
Yield: This year 20 pounds of tomatoes gave me 15 pints of sauce but the yield in any given year is dependent on a couple of things. First, the type of tomato since some are juicier than others. Second, it depends on how thick of a sauce you want. The longer you cook it the thicker it will be but you’ll be reducing the yield. It’s completely up to personal preference.
Ingredients
- 20 pounds of fresh tomatoes
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 2 cups chopped green pepper
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped fresh parsley or 3/4 cup dried parsley
- 4 chopped garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. chili powder (as I mentioned earlier, I omitted it this year)
- 3 Tbsp. un-iodized salt (I use Kosher salt)
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 2 tsp. oregano (The recipe doesn’t specify dried or powdered. I used dried)
- 2 tsp. rosemary (Again, I used dried.)
- 2 tsp. allspice
- 1 tsp. powdered basil (I used dried. And more.)
- 2 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional) (I omitted)
- 2 tsp. thyme (I used dried.)
- 2 tsp. sage (I used powdered.)
- 1 tsp. cumin (I didn’t have any so I omitted it.)
Instructions
Peel the tomatoes and chop into bite sized pieces. Alternatively put them in the blender or food processor and puree them. (I peeled by blanching and putting them ice water.)
Combine tomatoes, onions, green peppers, celery, parsley, garlic, and olive oil in large pot. (I used my pressure canner.)
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook it for 1/2 hour, stirring every few minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Bring the spaghetti sauce back up to a boil and cook it over low heat for 2 1/2 hours stirring every few minutes. This is where it varies depending on the type of tomato you’re using and how thick you want the sauce. I cooked my sauce for about three hours and really would have preferred to cook it a bit longer to thicken it a bit more but it was getting late and I was tired. Lesson learned for next year: start this first thing in the morning!
Ladle sauce into hot jars, leaving 1 inch head space.
Adjust two-piece caps.
Process at 10 pounds pressure–pints 20 minutes, quarts 25. For my altitude here in Kamloops I need to process at 11 pounds pressure. You need to check the altitude for your location and adjust accordingly.
