July, 2010
Over the past few tomato canning seasons, I’ve stumbled into a novel way to make tomato sauce that saves nutrients, energy and time.
Traditionally, you make tomato sauce by slowly simmering crushed tomatoes, or tomatoes that have been through a food mill, until enough liquid evaporates to thicken the sauce. In place of long cooking times (which destroy nutrients), my method for removing excess tomato liquid involves putting half-made tomato sauce into the refrigerator for a day or two – time enough for a couple of inches of clear juice to rise to the top, where it is easily removed. This simple step saves about two hours of cooking time in a hot kitchen, and makes it easy to save up small batches of tomato sauce for canning purposes. When canning tomatoes, a big batch is always more satisfying than a small one.
Step by step, here’s my method.
• 1. Place any amount of cleaned, halved tomatoes (with bad spots cut away) in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir and smash with a large spoon until the mixture comes to a simmer. Turn off the heat, put on the lid, and allow to cool. If you’re working with small batches, you can save up several quarts of barely-stewed tomatoes in the fridge before going on to the next step.
•2. Use a food mill or sieve if you have one to remove skins and some seeds, or place the stewed tomatoes in a large pot and mash them well with a potato masher, and pick out skins with clean hands. If you like, you can use a blender to de-chunk part or all of an unmilled tomato sauce mixture. Ladle the sauce into clean quart jars, and put it in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, but no more than 3 days.
• Use a turkey baster or drinking straw to remove the clear juice that rises to the top of the sauce. Yes, you can drink it! Measure how much sauce you have, place it a large pot, and slowly bring it to a simmer. Now you are ready to launch into an actual recipe. In addition to canning tomato sauce straight-up for winter use, you can make tomato sauce laced with basil, peppers, onions and garlic for pasta and pizza.
As the sauce slowly bubbles on a back burner, you can prepare your jars and other canning equipment, and double check your tomato canning, relish or ketchup recipe for processing times and other important safety details (like adding lemon juice or salt). Or, take the easy way and simply store your sauce in the freezer.
Hopefully, your tomato canning season just got a little easier!
