I call my tomatoes sauced tomatoes not tomato sauce because while they are cooked down a bit, I would never use this as sauce straight outta the jar. It’s pure tomato flavor and I use them in every way one would use whole or crushed canned tomatoes. They are forever versatile.
I find that tomatoes canned this way have a more robust flavor than the straight-up canned paste tomatoes. Any variety of tomato can be used and a mixture is best. You can (and should) use over-ripe tomatoes that are past their eating-fresh days. I throw many of those in the pot after cutting the dark spots completely off. Anything your garden or neighboring farmer gives you at the end of the season will work perfectly.
Sauced Tomatoes
You will need:
as many end-of-season garden or farm fresh tomatoes you can get
any variety citric acid
sea salt
pint & quart mason jars
food mill (I love mine!)
Directions:
1. Place a wide-bodied saucepan (big enough to fit all of your tomatoes) on medium high heat. Saucepan should be non-reactive, which means stainless or enameled iron.
2. Quickly chop up about 1 & 1/2 pounds of tomatoes – large chunks. Put them directly in the pot and press them down with a wooden spoon. Bring this mixture to a boil.
3. Continue to add approximately 1 & 1/2 pounds of chopped tomato, making sure it comes to a boil before adding the next round. You will want to chop as you go so that you do not lose too much of the precious tomato juice.
4. When all of your tomatoes are finally in the pot, boil for 5 minutes.
5. Run all of this through a food mill. I use the medium disc as it holds back all of the skin and most of the seeds, but still allows it to be pulpy.
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6. Put all of your milled tomatoes back into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by just 1/3rd. As this simmers down, prepare your canning pot and jars.
7. Once you’ve reduced tomatoes by 1/3rd, they are ready to be jarred.
8. For each pint jar, add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. For each quart jar, add 1/2 teaspoon citric acid and 1 teaspoon sea salt.
9. Fill hot jars with sauced tomatoes to 1/4 inch headspace. Hot water bath process pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40.
I find that the pints are perfect for curries, stews, casseroles, bean dishes, soups, etc. The quarts are perfect for pasta sauce, adding spices, dried tomatoes, olive oil, capers, chile, et al, and I will cook it down even more as I prefer a thicker tomato sauce for my pasta.