cook: preserving summer bounty

Home grown tomatoes just can't be beat for ripeness, flavor, and color, but it doesn't make me sad when we can't eat them all because that means I get to put them into my pantry as marinara sauce. Instead of sautéing the garlic and onions with the tomatoes, I merely put them in the blender along with the de-seeded tomatoes and some basil. If a few seeds end up in the blender, that's okay, because I don't peel the tomatoes either. The Vitamix is powerful enough to pulverize just about anything. After the vegetables are pureed, I boil it until it's reduced by at least half or saucy in texture. I don't bother skimming the foam from the boiling sauce but just stir it into the pot. 

 

See? The foam goes away, and my sauce was boiling down nicely.

 

I took out 2 quart jars and 2 pint jars for processing my sauce, but I boiled the sauce enough to make one less jar.

 

One of my favorite things about the preserving process is the satisfying pop when the jars emerge from the boiling water bath and make that airtight seal. I see spaghetti and meatballs, lasagne, baked ziti, chicken parmesan, cheese manicotti, pepperoni calzones, sausage and pepper heroes, ravioli this winter.