I have a good pile of tomatoes that I’m never going to be able to eat while fresh so I decided to can some up for the cold winter nights. I can already taste some delicious pasta made from the summer’s harvest.

I started with a big bag (2 gallon) of tomatoes quartered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put them in a big pot with some garlic, dried oregano and basil, and a little bit of olive oil. The exact recipe in in the Balls  Blue book – guide to canning and preserving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cook them down until quite soft.- about 20-30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a new gadget, a food mill. This will make it easy to remove the skins and seeds. It’s wet because I just washed it prior to using it the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run the cooked tomatoes through the mill.

Cook down the tomato sauce until the volume is reduced by half.
Then can as normal – adding 1 TBS on lemon juice to each jar prior to filling with sauce.
I processed them for 35 minutes per the instructions for pint jars. And voila! Summer in a jar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time, Eat well and keep digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener