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Garden Fresh Homemade Tomato Sauce notable with ingredients
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Annie's Garden Fresh Homemade Tomato Sauce

Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time4 hours
Total Time4 hours 30 minutes
Course: Sauce
Cuisine: Homestyle, Italian, Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword: canned tomato sauce, homemade tomato sauce
Servings: 5 quarts
Author: Ann Neumann

Ingredients

  • 23 pounds plum tomatoes can use other paste tomatoes, quartered
  • 3 cups onions chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 3 dried bay leaf
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground pepper or more to taste
  • 2 teaspoons hot pepper flakes see recipe for my hot pepper flakes blend
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt or more to taste
  • lemon juice bottled, quantity in canning directions

Instructions

  • Cut tomatoes into quarters.
    quartered paste tomatoes
  • Add tomatoes to large stock pot and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally.
    tomatoes in large stock pot
  • Cut onions, garlic and measure olive oil.
    tomato sauce ingredients
  • Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft.
    sauteed tomato sauce ingredients
  • Add sauteed vegetables to tomatoes in stock pot and stir. Cook on low heat, simmering tomatoes and vegetables until entire mixture is soft. Approximately 1 hour.
    pour ingredients into stockpot
  • Strain tomato sauce in food mill, removing skins and seeds. Return to pot.
    pour tomato sauce through food mill
  • Add oregano, basil, bay leaves, hot pepper mix and ground pepper to pot and mix well.
    add seasonings to tomato sauce
  • Simmer tomato sauce on low heat until mixture is thickened to your preference and reduced by half. You can cover to speed up reduction but partially vent by not covering completely. Stir occasionally. Approximately 2-3 hours. Add salt to taste. Let the tomato sauce cool to handle but keep warm.
    thickened and reduced tomato sauce
  • If freezing, pour 1 quart of tomato sauce in freezer bag, squeezing out excess air. Freeze bags individually without touching each other until completely frozen before stacking in freezer. This will prevent bags from sticking together when frozen.
    frozen tomato sauce
  • If canning, sterilize canning jars, lids and rings. See Recipe Notes for how to sterilize.
  • Ladle warm tomato sauce sauce into warm jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Add 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice to quart size jar after filled. Add 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice to pint size jar. Wipe rims and add lid and ring.
    pour tomato sauce in canning jar
  • Place in canner filled with boiling water. Water should cover jars by 1-2 inches. Process jars for 35 minutes in boiling water bath. Remove jars.
    canning jars
  • Cool overnight. Before storing, make sure lids have sealed.
    canned tomato sauce

Notes

Here is a good article about how to sterilize jars for canning-sterilize.
I use Tattler's reusable lids instead of disposable lids.  Check out the link.