Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe

Over the weekend I went to my favorite Farmer’s Market – Eastern Market. I go about every other week to stock upon goodies for recipes and things to stand in until my garden starts producing. Fruits, Veggies, fresh goat cheese and even a trip to the butcher! It was a great trip and I scored big on some fresh tomatoes – a farmer was selling flats of them (15 lbs each) for only $8. I grabbed two with the intention of making more ketchup, but realized quickly I’m out of a lot of other tomato based basics!

Yes, the ketchup is delicious, but we also quickly ran through the pizza sauce, I was out of tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce.. So instead of making a specific type of sauce I decided to make a basic tomato sauce recipe, that I could add to to fit my needs while cooking.

Remember how I said I bought two of these 15 lb boxes? My boyfriend walked by them at least once a day and asked what I was going to do with a “crapload” of tomatoes. Well.. here we go! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 35 lbs of tomatoes
• lemon juice
• salt

Directions:

1. Remove the skins and cores from all of your tomatoes. You can either blanch them (you can findblanching directions here) or you can roast them. Because of the amount of tomatoes in this recipe I roasted them under the broiler for 15 minutes. Line your cookie sheet with foil and line up your tomatoes. Broil for about 7 minutes and turn them over with tongs.
2. Allow your tomatoes to cool for about 10 minutes before working with them. Either method will result in them being hot to the touch still. Remove the skin and discard it into a bowl. Use a paring knife and cut the core out. If you broiled your tomatoes pour any juice collected on the foil into a large stock put – a LARGE stock pot. I had to switch part way though since my 9 quart pot wasn’t large enough.
3. Cut your tomatoes into quarters and place them into your large stock pot. Repeat until all of your tomatoes are done. Periodically pour the juice from your cutting board into the pot as well.
4. Boil your tomatoes on medium-high heat until they begin to reduce. Reduce your tomatoes down 1/3 for a thinner sauce or 1/2 for a thicker sauce.
5. Optional – After about 40 minutes – Use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. Reduce for another 20 minutes.
6. Ladle into your prepared Jars (steps 1-4 below). Before lidding your jars add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp lemon juice to each jar.
7. Add your lids and process with the steps below!

If you want to pressure can your sauce? Recommended Pressure Canning Time and Pressure

Canning Instructions: 

1. Place 7 clean quart mason jars on a rack in your stock pot. Fill the jars and stock pot with cool water until it completely covers the top of the jars. Cover and put on medium heat. Simmer but do not boil.
2. Prepare 7 lid sets, put the bands aside and put the flat lids in a small sauce pan and put on medium heat. Do not boil, but keep warm through the whole process.
3. Prepare your sauce according to the directions above.
4. Now, remove the jars from the warm bath. Tip them as you pull them out and pour the water back into the pan. Place them on a towel on the counter with the opening up. Do not dry them! Just put them down and put the funnel in. Ladle the sauce into each jar until there is about 1/2 inch of space in the top. Once all jars are full, take a plastic or wooden utensil and move it around to get extra air bubbles out.
5. Add in the salt and lemon juice before adding your lids!
6. Take the small magnet tool and remove flat lids from their hot bath. Place over top of each jar. By hand screw on the collars, but not too tight! Remember some air still needs to get out of each jar.
7. Place the jars back into the hot stock pot and replace the lid. Turn your temperature up to high. When it starts to do a rolling boil, start a timer for 40 minutes.
8. After the jars have processed for 40 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the lid to the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove all the jars without tipping them and place them back on the towel. Remember – don’t towel them off!

The original recipe I found and based mine off of said that this would make 7 quarts… however, it made 15! I guess it’s in how much you reduce it down. I decided to keep mine sauce instead of tomato paste, and we’re stocked up for a long time now. I even used it as a pizza sauce tonight for dinner and it was delicious.

You can prepare 7 quart jars or I’d suggest doing pints for use-ability. Have extras on hand if you don’t reduce your sauce a ton! I used 14 pint jars, and 4 quarts, plus had additional in a bowl to work with tonight.

This recipe is part of the Food Challenge with nine other bloggers. You can check out the recipes below for this challenge! Each month we’ll be doing another challenge – let us know if you try any of the recipes!

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