There’s nothing quite like homemade spaghetti sauce, especially when you can it yourself. This recipe yields 7 quarts, ensuring you’re never out of your favorite sauce.
Ingredients
- 1/2 bushel tomatoes
- 1 c. oil
- 1/4 c. minced garlic
- 6 cans tomato paste
- 3 peppers (2 sweet and 1 hot)
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. salt
- 1 Tbsp. sweet basil
- 2 Tbsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
Canning Process
- Cook ground or chopped peppers and onions in oil for 1/2 hour. Cook tomatoes and garlic as for juice.
- Put through the mill.
- (I use a food processor and do my tomatoes uncooked.
- I then add the garlic right to the juice.)
- Add peppers and onions to juice and remainder of ingredients.
- Cook approximately 1 hour.
- Put in jars and seal.
- Yields 7 quarts.
Calorie: 150
Total cooking time: 2 hours
Difficulty level: Medium
The Great Spaghetti Sauce Adventure
Get ready folks, I’m about to share one of my most thrilling culinary escapades: making my own spaghetti sauce to can. This isn’t just any sauce, it’s a concoction of 1/2 bushel tomatoes, 1 cup of oil, a generous handful (or 1/4 cup, if you insist on precision!) of minced garlic, 6 cans of tomato paste, and a trifecta of peppers – 2 sweet for the charm and 1 hot for the kick. The magic continues with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of sweet basil, 2 tablespoons of oregano, and a dash of Italian seasoning — just a teaspoon, mind you. Now, let’s dive into this saucy saga!
Chapter One: The Sizzling Beginnings
Well, well, well, where do we begin? With some ground or chopped peppers and onions, of course! These little fellows get a luxurious oil bath for about half an hour. Did you know that peppers and onions are excellent swimmers? Me neither, but I’ve never seen them drown in oil yet!
Chapter Two: The Tomato Tango
After the peppers and onions come our main stars – tomatoes and garlic. Now, tomatoes and garlic have a special kind of chemistry. They love to dance around in a hot pan (as for juice) and then take a spin through the mill. I, however, like to shake things up a bit. I prefer to keep my tomatoes raw, letting the food processor do the heavy lifting. The garlic? I add it right to the juice. Because, why not?
Chapter Three: The Grand Assembly
Next, our peppers and onions join the tomato-garlic juice. You can almost hear the sizzling whispers of culinary gossiping. This is where we add in the remaining ingredients. Sugar, salt, sweet basil, oregano, and Italian seasoning all jump in, one by one. There’s a party in my saucepan, and everyone’s invited!
Chapter Four: The Simmering Suspense
This is where the plot thickens — quite literally. The sauce now needs to cook for about an hour. That’s sixty whole minutes of stirring, tasting, and praying that the sauce doesn’t taste like liquefied pizza. Spoiler alert: It never does. But the suspense sure adds a bit of drama to this otherwise serene sauce-making session!
Chapter Five: The Sealing Finale
Finally, the moment of truth. The sauce is ready to be jarred and sealed. I always find this part especially nerve-wracking. It’s like sending your kid off to college — you’ve done all you can, and now it’s time to let them stand on their own two feet. Or in this case, sit on their own two lids. In the end, we end up with 7 quarts of splendid spaghetti sauce, canned and ready to be savored.
So there you have it, folks. My personal journey through the land of tomatoes, oil, garlic, tomato paste, peppers, sugar, salt, sweet basil, oregano, and Italian seasoning. It’s a riot of flavors, a dance of ingredients, and a testament to my undying love for spaghetti sauce. And remember, if I can do it, so can you! Happy cooking!
