Tomato sauce from scratch -- italia's recipe

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 Bushel romano tomatoes
6 Sweet Peppers; 3 Green, 3 Red
1 bunch Celery
2 pounds Onions
1 Head garlic
1 bunch Carrots
1 bunch Basil
1 bunch Parsley
Salt And Oil

Directions

Coarsely chop all vegetables except tomatoes. Place in a large pot with enough oil to coat vegetables and have some extra sitting in the bottom of the pot. Saut‚ 10 min. Set vegetables aside in a dish. Add tomatoes to large pot with more oil and heat on high until they start to go soft. Keep stirring the bottom of the pot. Add the vegetables to the tomatoes and keep stirring. Bring to a boil. Turn down to a strong evenly bubbling simmer.

Sieve the mixture; I used an Italian 'tomato machine' made especially for this use. Fill sterilized quart jars leaving 1" head space. Can 30 min.

Peg Baldassari's Notes: Italia was an Italian friend in Toronto; her father was quite the patriot and named her 'Italia'. Very pretty name and a very nice lady. She made this sauce every year and, as a favor to me, made a 'small' batch with me one day; I kept the above notes. This is hard physical labor and I don't advise doing it alone; traditionally it is an all-day family venture and you would do at least one bushel per household participating. If you don't have a 'tomato machine' you can use a regular sieve; it just takes longer. It is crucial to keep stirring the tomatoes because otherwise what's on top doesn't get cooked enough and what's on the bottom burns up. Don't leave the pot unattended. Italia's family would do this cooking and canning outside. Before you try this recipe make sure you have the biggest pot you can find and free up or borrow at least one other in case you run out of space in the main pot. You can have two pots going at the same time. A thick-bottomed pot is best. Make sure that your spoon is taller than your pot. Mine wasn't taller by much and it was very hard to stir up the bottom of the pot without dipping my fingers into the hot sauce. Don't have a light hand with or omit the salt and/or oil; they are necessary for the finished product. Use canola or olive oil and sea salt.

Recipe by: Italia

Posted to recipelu-digest by Peg Baldassari <Baldassari@...> on Mar 16, 1998

Related recipes