This past Saturday, we made our tomato sauce for the year. We used to be able to make all our tomato sauce from tomatoes we grew in our own garden but times are changing and the garden isn’t as big as it used to be. Not a Problem! Do you think we would buy it at the grocery store? NEVER! It’s still doable. This years tomato crop here in New England took a serious hit from all the rain and finding Roma/Plum tomatoes has been difficult and expensive. The local farm we usually buy them from didn’t have any but after a little research, I found a great website called pickyourown.org that lists farms by state where you can…. you guessed it, pick your own fruits and vegetables. After about 10 phone calls with no success and venturing further and further from home, I came across a farm in Avon, CT that had Plum tomatoes and we were off to pick em! We picked 5 bushels and got together to make sauce. Interested in giving it a try??
What You’ll Need:
-Tomatoes: Cost – $15-20 per bushel ($10 last year!) if you pick your own, more if you get them pre-picked. I’m sure the cost varies from farm to farm and certainly from year to year, so shop around if you can.
-Tomato Sauce Machine
-Large pots, buckets, containers
-Large wooden spoon
-Sharp knives
-Jars, jar tops
-Basil (optional)
-Stove or propane burner
We like to pick our own tomatoes, so that we can select the ripest and best ones. Why leave it up to someone else? Our family has always used Plum or Roma tomatoes to make our tomato sauce because they have less water content. Less water = thicker sauce. As I mentioned, this year we picked 5 bushels (give or take) of tomatoes and they yielded about 80 quart size jars of tomato sauce.
Here’s a brief step by step of how to make your own homemade tomato sauce.
1- Select the ripest tomatoes: We recommend Plum/Roma tomatoes. They can usually be found at a local farm in your area. In our experience one bushel of plum tomatoes will make 15-ish quart size jars of tomato sauce.
2- If your tomatoes need to ripen a little, lay them out for a few days. We usually lay them flat on a tarp or a blanket in the garage or shed.
3- Call the family over, friends… whoever likes to show up when you’re making pasta on Sundays. Use the, “no work, no eat” phrase that my dad likes to use whenever one of these occasions presents itself.
4- Wash the tomatoes in a large container to get rid of any dirt, etc. Basically fill the container with water and dump in your tomatoes for a quick bath.
5- Once you’ve washed the tomatoes, cut the top piece off… not too much, just the little round dot on the top of the tomato (not sure what it’s called in English but codicino in Calabrese) and slice the tomato down the center the long way. You don’t need to cut them in half, just slice them so that they open up. Some people like to squeeze some juice out of the tomatoes after they slice them but we don’t do that anymore. It all depends on the type of tomatoes you’re using. The round tomatoes like Beefsteak, Jet Stars, etc. have higher water content, so it might be a good idea to give them a squeeze if that’s the variety you’re using.
6- Place your washed, sliced tomatoes in a large pot (see below) and cook them for approx 20-30 minutes at high heat, stirring occasionally. You’ll know they’re ready when they start getting soupy and you can pinch the skin off the tomatoes (don’t burn yourself trying). We find that it’s easier and quicker to cook the tomatoes on a propane burner. It speeds up cooking time, you can use larger pots and you can do it outside or in the garage/shed, which makes cleaning up easier.
7- Now that you’ve cooked the tomatoes, you’re ready to put them through your sauce maker. You can buy a sauce maker online or at a local kitchenware store. There are manual and automatic ones depending on your preference and price point. They can run from $40 for a manual one to $200+ for an electric one. We use a manual one…. My dad says the sauce tastes better when you work harder. Which is code for, “I’m not paying for an electric one, so shut up and turn the handle.”
8- Scoop the stewed tomatoes into the machine and crank the handle. We usually scoop some of the water out so that the sauce is thicker. The sauce will come out one end and the skins out the other. Make sure you have containers to collect both. Once you have processed the tomatoes, put the skins through for a second time. The sauce from the second round is thicker because there’s less water. We usually put the skins through a third time as well but you don’t have to.
9- Now that you have your sauce you need to fill your jars. The sauce machine usually comes with a funnel that fits standard jars to make things easier, otherwise you should buy a funnel… or you’ll make a mess. We grow a lot of basil, so we like to place a few leaves in each jar for taste but it’s not necessary. Scoop your sauce with a cup or mug and fill your jars a few inches from the top. Don’t fill the jars too high, we’ve found that when we fill the jars too high some of them go bad (not sure why.)
10- Once you’ve filled your jars, cap them with jar tops (you can finds jars and tops at any hardware store.)
11- When you’ve finished jarring, you’ll need to boil your jars of sauce to seal them. Place the jars in a large pot and fill the pot with water so that all the jars are submerged. Bring the water to a boil and boil the jars for about 20-30 minutes. Again, we like to use the propane burner (seen below) because it’s faster and we can use a larger pot. The pot below holds about 20 jars.
12- After boiling the jars, remove them and cover them with a blanket. We lay one blanket down and cover the jars with another blanket so that the jars don’t cool too quickly and crack. You can leave them overnight.
This sauce has no preservatives or additives. You can’t find this quality of tomato sauce in a grocery store. You’ll still have to cook it, add spices, meat, etc. but you’ll have fresh, homemade tomato sauce made from local ripe tomatoes for the entire year. Open a jar, make it the way you like it and Buon appetito!!
WOW!!! That is some serious canning!! I made grape jelly one year. First and last time. It is HARD work.
Kudos to you Joe!
Even if it is my intention to make our own tomato sauce next year, I am certainly glad that you posted this as a reminder. Since I didn’t figure on being such a success at gardening, I didn’t bother to plant any SM’s, only odd-looking heirlooms, that, while tasty as heck, aren’t the best for saucing. Boy was that a mistake!
Looks like I’ll have to make do with the canned stuff. Not even the suocera makes her own anymore, given how much easier it is to drive over to Auchan or Carrefour for the goods.
There’s nothing like really good fresh sauce – but we dont’ have that luxury here in Chicago. So, I use tomatoes, a little stock, and tomato paste.
-DTW
http://www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com
This is great, Joe.
Loved the code: Shut up and turn the handle.
Hi Robin.. jelly does seem like a lot of work. Tomato sauce isn’t so bad as long as you have help… and a few bottles of vino:)
Rowena.. yes, the heirlooms are great but no so much for sauce. Let me know how it turns out!
Darius… I’m just glad you don’t use that stuff in a jar I mentioned a few posts ago. Blah!
Sally, my dad has lots of code… a no nonsense guy my dad.
God Joe, our family’s are so much a like its scary! I guess b/c we’re from close towns in Calabria
We made our over the Labor Day weekend, we had 50 bushels…it took all weekend!!!!! And your steps are exactly how we do it. Its a lot of work and time consuming, but oh so worth it!!!! My mom has been doing the red pepper sauce as well for the sopressatte come winter time!
If your jars get so hot that you’re concerned about them cooling “too quickly” and have actually had some crack — you’re heating them up too much when you process them.
I would never process 20 quart jars at a time – and have never seen any recommendations for processing jars over on their sides. Seems a bit risky — you only have to have enough water to go 1 inch over the tops of the jars standing in the water. Stacking them on their sides seems like it might cause some cracking, too.
I just made a couple small test batches of sauce last night with two kinds of heirloom tomatoes, a ginormous heirloom Roma and Debarao.
What kind of tomatoes do you use?
hi jennconspiracy, we stack them on their side to save time mostly, since we have so many and we can fit more in that way… it’s not a recommendation but it works for us. Haven’t cracked one yet (knock on wood) The blanket allows them to cool gradually since we leave them in the shed and the nights here in New England are already in the upper 30s, low 40s. Jars can crack/explode from a quick fluctuation of temp.
Ah – a shed and super low temps explains it – I don’t have that problem here in the SF Bay Area.
Now thats a thing of beauty!!! Nothing like it!
Very labor intensive, but well worth it when a snowstorm hits and all you wanna do is have a hot plate of pasta & gravy with no work, just grab a jar.
I've been making my homemade gravy (sauce) using M. Batali recipe for years.
Grazie per la condivisione
You just described a typical activity that we do every year. And you’re right, the whole family chips in. The only thing different is we don’t cook the tomatoes first, we just process them. Plus, we use a huuuuge container and do about 150-200 bottles at a time. We use the blanket trick though and then let them cool gradually over night. They make the best sauce in the world (much better than the nasty bottled stuff).
Marie… agreed:)
Dawn, don’t say it…. winter? snowstorm? at least we’ll have the sauce:)
interesting MB… everyone has a twist. My aunt brings the sauce to a boil before bottling it (not jars) and doesn’t boil the bottles…she uses beer type bottle and tops them. She calls it “con la febbre” because the sauce is hot when bottled. She swears the sauce stays fresher that way.
What a sight!!
Joe, those scarlet jars of sauce look so good.
I have never made it from scratch though there are plenty of folk around here that do. I love your burner thing and that huge old pan.
Looks like lots of hard work to me, respect is due yet again ‘recipe guy’:)amanda
Oh, that looks so good!! A lot of work, yes, but yum come the chillier months! Great post, Joe!
When’s dinner?? That’s a fantastic tradition and I’m sure one that’s worth all the hard work.
WOW!!! send a couple of jars over this way:)
Maria, I missed your comment…. 50 bushels!?? That’s crazzzzzyy. Good for you guys though. The best part is getting everyone together isn’t it? By the way, we’re doing the red pepper sauce today! 8 bushels…. can’t wait for the sopressata!
thanks Amanda!
Chris… well worth it. Hope all is well is eternal city.
Lorraine… I would but they might break:) I’m sure with your skills and multiple trips to Italy each month (ok, I exagerate) you’ll be ok.
This is all so familiar to me. I grew up doing this big style with my family of eight in Australia.
My job – wash out the beer bottles;wash the tomatoes and then squeeze each one (this juice dripping down to the elbows). We do it MB’s way and don’t cook it first. My Dad, used to use an electric drill to turn the machine and broke a few bits that way. It was all boiled outside in a big metal drum- I told you, it was an industrial scale. It was dark by the time we had those bottles in the drum and loses were counted the next day, but an old blanket helped. Oh, they roasted peppers on the fire too!
This is exactly how we do it although we haven’t done it in a while. My grandmother used to do it outside but now me and my cousin’s wife have started doing it and we do it on the stovetop.
This sounds a little easier than the way we did it… I will try it. We use to boil water and put in in one sink, cold in the other sink. Dump tomatoes in the hot water, to loosen skins, then in the cold water to peel and squeeze out extra water. From there, we put them in a huge kettle to cook.
We also altered some of the batches to have more herbs or different herbs than others, for different types of sauces.
Depending on which relative we worked with, the cooked tomatoes were put into sterilized jars with sterilized lids and bands and set to cool, the heat vacuum sealed them. The other relative would put them in jars and put them in a hot bath described as above with the rest of the procedures the same.
Either way, can’t beat the flavor.
We have made grape jelly, syrup, etc., from our grapevines here in Minnesota. Also a lot of work, but worth it.
[...] Itallyville provides a recipe and instruction for make homemade tomato sauce. It’s a lot of work, but can’t you just taste that delicious freshness?! [...]
reminds me of coming home from school in September and smelling the tomatoes cooking in the basement. my mom canned ever September !!! fond memories
Reminds me of coming home from school on a warm September day and spelling the tomatoes cooking in our second kitchen in the basement. fond memories
Reminds me of coming home from school on a warm September day and smelling the tomatoes cooking in our second kitchen in the basement. fond memories
[...] Itallyville provides a recipe and instruction for make homemade tomato sauce. It’s a lot of work, but can’t you just taste that delicious freshness?! [...]
Just finished jarring a bushel of tomatoes the way you described. Of the 12 quart jars I made 5 of the lids seem to have bubbled up with a dent or crease in the lid. Any idea why this happened? I was wondering if I tightened th lids too tight. The tomatoes were put in the jars with about a 1/2″ of space to the top of the jar. Any ideas?