Marinara Sauce

Tomatoes, tomatoes, oh I love tomatoes.

Underneath my sideboard are pints and quart jars of thick, amazing marinara sauce just waiting for a hot dish, pasta, or homemade pizza.  I will let you in on my secret of making sauce that will never disappoint.

Tuesday helping me "prep" the tomatoes.

The Tomatoes

What kinds of tomatoes?  Listen, if you can't grow them in your own garden, buy them at a farmer's market.  Don't waste your money at a box grocery store if you can't help it.  I'm not the kind of person to get all preachy about genetically altered foods, but it's my experience that your tomatoes will feel and taste better if they are grown in a garden.

An heirloom roma tomato plant that is about three weeks old.

As long as I've been growing tomatoes, I have been buying my seeds from Baker Creek.  Above are the varieties that grow in my garden.  I toss them all in the roasting pan--whatever is ripe at the time will go in the oven.  The Amish paste, romas, and black vernissage are THICK, and simply amazing.  If I have too many cherry tomatoes (principe borghese), I will toss them in the pan as well.

A beautiful Amish paste tomato.

The Equipment

When I first started making tomato sauce, I did not take the seeds out.  Everyone said it was way too much work. But I swear, I can taste added bitterness in my sauce with the seeds in.  It was my fourth year of canning sauce that I decided to try a food mill, and I have never gone back to having seeds in my sauce since.

We already owned a Kitchen Aid mixer with a meat grinder attachment.  Spending about $30 more, I was able to get an additional attachment that made my meat grinder a food mill.  I like using my Kitchen Aid because it is electronic and not a hand crank method, but the hand crank food mills will work just fine.

I also use a fine mesh colander, a large roasting pan, a blender, canning jars and lids, and a large, tall pot.

The Recipe

15 to 20 Pounds of Tomatoes
3 Yellow Onions
3 to 4 Garlic Heads

2 tablespoon of dried Basil or 4 tablespoons fresh Basil
2 tablespoon of dried Oregano or 4 tablespoons of fresh Oregano
1 tablespoon of Cracked Black Pepper
2 to 3 teaspoons of Kosher Salt
1/2 cup of White Sugar
Citric Acid or Lemon Juice

Step One

Rinse the tomatoes and cut the tops off of them.  Core them if they have large cores, and cut them in half if they are large.  Fill your roasting pan to the top.  Put them in the oven on 350 Fahrenheit for two to three hours.  

Tomatoes ready to go in the oven.

Step Two

Pull the roasting pan out of the oven.  Immediately run the tomatoes through the food mill to take out seeds.  Set the wire mesh strainer so that the liquid coming out of the food mill is caught.  You will soon see beautiful, red tomato paste.  Pour the tomato paste into a large bowl as the strainer fills.  Keep the tomato juice.   Once you have run all the tomatoes through the food mill, evaluate your thick, tomato sauce.  If you would like the sauce to be thinner, add some of the tomato juice back into the sauce until you reach the consistency you would like. You can discard the remaining tomato juice or use it for other cooking.  Put the tomato sauce back into the roasting pan.  You will want to rinse the pan out before putting the tomato sauce back in.

Step Three
Really, the spices are what you like.  If you love garlic go with the four cloves.  If you are not a garlic fan, go with three.  Peel and quarter the onions and peel the three to four garlic heads.  If you have fresh herbs, you will blend the onions, garlic, and fresh herbs all together in a blender.  If you have dried herbs you will add them to the pot with the tomato sauce.  Blend the onions, garlic, and fresh herbs if you have them to the thickness you would like them to be in the sauce.  Add the blended mixture to the tomato sauce in the roasting pan.  Stir that yumminess in!  Stir in the dried herbs, pepper, salt, and sugar.  Return in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit for another hour.  During this hour, your house will start to smell like you've kidnapped an Italian grandma!  The onions and garlic flavors really cook in!  If after an hour you feel as though it's lacking some spices add more in.

Step Four

Get the water bath going on the stove top.  I use a large pot with a wire drop down rack.  You'll want the water to be boiling when you put those jars in.  Next, put citric acid or lemon juice into the bottom of your jars.  Add 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes. For pints, use 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid. 

Step Five

Pull out your roasting pan and ladle hot marinara sauce into hot sterilized jars, leaving about ¼ inch headspace. Be sure to wipe jar rims so they seal right; adjust lid and screw bands.  Drop jars into boiling water so that at least an inch of water is covering the jars.  The water will evaporate over the time that the jars are on the stove top.  Be sure you have plenty of water in the pot.  I also put the lid on the pot.  I find less water evaporates with the lid on.

Step Six

Process filled jars in a boiling-water canner 40 minutes of pints and 45 minutes for quarts.  Lids should pop within twenty-four hours.

Makes 12 to 18 pints depending on how many pounds of tomatoes used.