Arriga
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Tomato Sauce

Hello all. I have a load of Roma tomatoes and decided to attempt to make sauce for spaghetti and freeze for the winter to come. Are there and good recipes that you have tried? Should I use fresh or dry herbs?

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hendi_alex
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I think that spagetti sauce is one of those things that is difficult to mess up. I never use a recipe, and it always turns out very tasty, and always a little different each time.

Start with olive oil and garlic, heat but do not brown. Browned garlic tastes bitter. Add diced onion, saute lightly. Shake Italian herb blend into hot oil. I've never used fresh tomatoes but if I were would either use a portion as small diced and about 2/3 pureed in a food processor or would just puree the whole batch. Add a bit of sugar, maybe one or two teaspoons. Salt and pepper to taste. And then for the magic ingredient, give a good squirt of Heinz tomato catsup. Simmer for at least one hour, but longer is better. For me, would add sliced ripe olives and sliced mushrooms, but that is a personal thing and certainly optional. If the fresh tomatoes don't exactly give the right flavor or consistency you may want to add some tomato juice or some tomatoe puree from a can.

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Be careful about the skins because they add bitterness when cooked.

noqgardener
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we plan to make pizza sauce we can get a seasoning packet by the canning stuff at walmart and other grocery stores too (sometimes it is by the seasonings) they have a spagetti, ketchup, and salsa also

petalfuzz
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I make mine a little differently:

peel about 12 roma tomatoes by blanching quickly in boiling water
sautee a half onion and a green bell pepper (both diced) until clear
add 2-4 diced garlic cloves
add tomatoes, diced (to make 4+ cups)
add 1 tbsp white vinegar and 1/2 tbsp salt. I also add 1/2-1 tbsp dried basil

Cook no more than 20 minutes. Spoon 1/2 or more of the mixture into the blender and puree smooth. Add back to the pan. This will make a chunky sauce, obviously. You can blend the lot for a smooth sauce. Yield: about 24 ozs.

I gave this sauce with pasta to my DH in his lunch. He said it was the best ever! And my first try, too :wink:

R12
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DH........Dear Husband? I like that recipe. I'm going to try that. Thanks[quote

[/quote]Live each like there is no tomorrow but save a couple of romas in case there is.......gotcha :P

J-veg
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this is my recipe, not 100% sure on the measurements since I eye ball everything...

peel, seed and dice enough tomatoes for about 8 cups

heat a good glug of olive oil in a pot and add one anchovie fillet, some black pepper and as much chili flakes as you like (I do about 1.5 tsp I think)

when the anchovie has melted add 1 chopped onion

a couple minutes later add however many chopped cloves of garlic you like

once the onions are clear and before the garlic browns add the tomatoes and about a half cup of water or some of the saved tomato seed/liquid or light stock or some wine (red works good I would up it to a cup of red)

add a good pinch of salt

let simmer for about 10 minutes

taste and adjust salt/pepper to your liking

simmer for a couple more minutes and taste

Depending on how saucy you like your sauce, whiz it up a bit (I use an immersion blender)

just before taking off the heat add about a half cup of fresh ripped up basil leaves

JMCDA
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Location: Ontario

I make roasted tomato sauce every year.

...tailor the recipe to the amt of tomatoes you have and the size of roasting pan, I don't think you can really go wrong with quantities of ingredients as long as you have enough garlic and olive oil to flavour it.

...wash, peel and cut into largish chunks tomatoes to fill at least 2/3's full the largest roasting pan you have - mine fits a 20 lb+ turkey.
(spray the sides of the pan with Pam before adding tomatoes

add probably a half head head of garlic, cloves peeled and sliced.
sprinkle of coarse salt (sea salt)

chunks of green pepper if you like, (I do one batch with)
some onion if you like (I don't)
and handfuls of fresh oregano, basil, and thyme leaves only- or less of each if all you have is dried herbs.

add about a 1/2 cup sugar (or to taste - taste after it has cooked down) and a good big splash of extra virgin olive oil (and maybe some more as it cooks down. Thats maybe a 1/2 cup in my big roaster.

Put the roaster in the oven at 250 degrees and let it cook for a few hours, stirring occasionally until it has reduced by at least half and most of the water in the tomatoes has evaporated . It will darken considerably and the tomatoes will pretty well break up, you can mash it a bit with a masher or run an emmersion blender thru it if you don't like it chunky.

My roaster will make 7 pint jars once it has cooked down.

To use it, cook your pasta in heavily salted water until it is almost done, then drain the pasta, dump on the sauce and continue to cook the pasta until it picks up all the moisture in the sauce and is al dente. Sprinkle on a good helping of parmesan, cover the pot and let it sit for a few minutes.

Joann

cgiglio01
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Hi,

To make it easier to peel the tomatoes, I make a criss cross cut at the bottom of each and then boil them in water for about a minute. Put them in ice water to stop the cooking and the temp change also makes the peeling easier. Once all are peeled I cut off the stem end and put them in a blender (really smoosh them in to make juice and easier to blend). You may have to do in batches depending on the number of tomatoes. Puree for 30 seconds, strain seeds if you wish and keep to the side.

NOTE: all measurements will depend on the amount of tomatoes you have, so I didn't write any in.

In a large pot, heat olive oil at med-hi heat. Add chopped onions and saute. I add a large pinch of coarse salt and a little sugar to caramelize. Then turn the heat down to medium and let the onions cook until translucent and almost turning light brown, but no where near burnt. Then add chopped garlic and saute a minute, then add tomato paste (canned). Let that cook a few minutes. This helps get a lot of flavor into the sauce. Then add your blended puree of tomatoes. Simmer for at least 30-60 minutes stirring accasionally, then add fresh or dried basil, oregano, pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. YUMMY!

Good luck!

Kristofer
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Location: Kenova, West Virginia

hendi_alex wrote:I think that spagetti sauce is one of those things that is difficult to mess up. I never use a recipe, and it always turns out very tasty, and always a little different each time.

Start with olive oil and garlic, heat but do not brown. Browned garlic tastes bitter. Add diced onion, saute lightly. Shake Italian herb blend into hot oil. I've never used fresh tomatoes but if I were would either use a portion as small diced and about 2/3 pureed in a food processor or would just puree the whole batch. Add a bit of sugar, maybe one or two teaspoons. Salt and pepper to taste. And then for the magic ingredient, give a good squirt of Heinz tomato catsup. Simmer for at least one hour, but longer is better. For me, would add sliced ripe olives and sliced mushrooms, but that is a personal thing and certainly optional. If the fresh tomatoes don't exactly give the right flavor or consistency you may want to add some tomato juice or some tomatoe puree from a can.
I haven't read the rest of this thread yet. But you made my mouth water (: Nice choices.

Grunta0
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Location: Oz

petalfuzz wrote:I make mine a little differently:

peel about 12 roma tomatoes by blanching quickly in boiling water
sautee a half onion and a green bell pepper (both diced) until clear
add 2-4 diced garlic cloves
add tomatoes, diced (to make 4+ cups)
add 1 tbsp white vinegar and 1/2 tbsp salt. I also add 1/2-1 tbsp dried basil

Cook no more than 20 minutes. Spoon 1/2 or more of the mixture into the blender and puree smooth. Add back to the pan. This will make a chunky sauce, obviously. You can blend the lot for a smooth sauce. Yield: about 24 ozs.

I gave this sauce with pasta to my DH in his lunch. He said it was the best ever! And my first try, too :wink:
My Spag sauce is very similar to this except I use any tomatoes which I have available (except black russian).
I don't use the green pepper and instead of vinegar I use (a liberal amount) of red wine.
A squirt of worcestishire sauce, one vegetable stock cube and a sprinkling of mixed herbs.
Simmer for as long as you like.
Add precooked mince meat and simmer, stirring often.
If colour is not dark enough (depends on the tomatoes used) put in some tomato sauce or add tomato puree.

Distribute to plastic containers and freeze.

A nice quick meal on the nights you want pasta or spaghetti.

TZ -OH6
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Location: Mid Ohio

I use regular eating tomatoes for sauce and have to cook them down by half, but this gives a very sweet sauce. I have often made sauce in a hurry with skins and seeds included (just quarter them and put them in with the sauteing onions etc.). The seed gel often carries more flavor than the flesh. The seeds themselves, when bitten do not taste good, but do not taste bad either, and I've never noticed any harsh flavor from the skin. Texture of seeds and skin may be a turn off though. When I do parboil tomatos to skin them I simply pile the hot tomatos on a cookie sheet or tray to cool a bit rather than put them in ice water. I use a really big high sided frying pan to make reducing go faster.

simple sauce recipe

olive oil (several tbsp for flavor)
medium onion chopped
chopped garlic
tsp+ thyme
tsp+ marjoram
tsp+ basil
bay leaf
italian suasage or 1tsp fennel seed
cook down until a dry area follows the spatula when stirring
tsp corn starch in cold water at end of cooking to bind in water

David Taylor
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Location: Crest California

My wife makes a killer spaghetti sauce that we can. We haven't bought Ragu for the last ten years. What we end up doing with our surplus tomatoes, besides canning salsa, is freeze the juice in one gallon freezer bags, usually to hold them over to a convenient time when we can can them. We use a traditional strainer that squishes the tomato, and separates the skin and seeds from the juice. The kids love to operate the squisher, which can make a one hour job two or three hours. I try to squish the juice as the wife prepares to cook, and then afterwards I can it. Surplus juice, or toward the end of the season when we don't have enough tomatoes in one run to can, we end up freezing. We've got six gallons of Roma juice frozen and another six gallons of Everything Else Tomato frozen. The rule of thumb is, a gallon of Roma juice equals almost two quarts of spaghetti sauce, once cooked down, and a gallon of any other tomato juice is no more than a quart. With the sixty quarts of spaghetti sauce we presently have canned, and the twelve quarts of tomatoes we have frozen, we should make it through until the next harvest.

Her recipe seems to be: tomatoes and onion until it looks right, simmer it until its thick, throw garlic in until it Needs Something Else, throw in the basil, and finally the Italian Mix from Costco. Some salt, maybe more garlic, and then I can the stuff.

ManokAnak
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Location: Chicago

cgiglio01 does it almost like we do it! it is a good method for making sauce and you can add many things to that method. Play around once you get basic sauce making down.

We have always added some home made Italian sweet sausages or sometimes the spicier one with fennel from the Italian store. Also, sometimes a mix of meatball of pork and veal. After the sauce is together, simmering it with the meat gives it a really rich flavor.

As for tomatoes, we usually add home grown plum/san marzano. If using pulp from the store, the best comes in a glass jar from Italy.

In some more Mexican tomatoes sauces/pastes I make, I roast some tomato and garlic and soak some dried ancho and pasilla chiles, then, after removing seeds and skins, I blend them together for a thick paste. Add lime juice/peel, onion, cumin, cilantro, oregano, whatever I feel like herbs, black pepper and salt. it is worth a try for something new in your sauce. Made some for my mom, she loves it.

Also, in one of our old family recipes, my Great Grandma would simmer the sauce with some whole banana peppers in them.

My boyfriend is Filipino and when he makes my family recipe sauce, he adds some ginger and soy sauce, bit of fish sauce to it. Very good.



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