Category: Sauces

Recipes for all kinds of sauces

Boiling jarred tomatoes to preserve.

How to Jar Tomatoes, Italian Style

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Updated 07/27/21

When I was growing up, I always knew when it was almost the end of summer just by the smell of ground up tomatoes that filled the air. Yes, it was time to “do the tomatoes”, which meant that all the Italians on my block were busy grinding up tomatoes by the boxes and jarring them so that they would have homemade tomato sauce for the next year. And let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like eating homemade tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes!

You can jar tomatoes anytime, but here in the Northeast they are harvested locally from mid-August to late September, and so are the freshest and cheapest to buy. A 20 lb. box of plum tomatoes yields about 9 jars of sauce. Make sure that the tomatoes are ripe. If they’re not, the sauce will be a little sour. Also, boil the jars or run them through the dishwasher before using them to kill any bacteria. You can reuse lids as long as the inner part that covers the jar has no scratches or rust on them.

kenneth cole
Cover the table and chairs (if you’re using them) with a big garbage bag so that it will be a little easier to clean up afterwards by just removing the bag.

25 lb. Boxes of Tomatoes

25 lb. Boxes of Tomatoes

Here are instructions on how we’ve always done it at home:

What you will need:
fresh basil leaves
box of salt
20 – 25 lb boxes of fresh plum tomatoes, depending on how many jars you’d like to make
Mason jars
tablespoon
ladle
sharp knife
2 or 3 large garbage bags
several large plastic bowls
2 or 3 large pots
towels, to clean up and also to wrap jars

1. Add about 3 fresh basil leaves and 1 T of salt to each jar.

Preparing the jars with salt and basil leaves

Preparing the jars with salt and basil leaves

2. Using a sharp knife, cut the tomatoes in half or in quarters, depending on the size, so that they are easier to put into the strainer.

Cutting the tomatoes to make it easier to grind.

Cutting the tomatoes to make it easier to grind.

3. Place one bowl to catch the tomato liquid/sauce, and one to catch the ground up tomatoes under the tomato strainer. Keep replacing bowls as needed. Slowly put in pieces of tomatoes into the strainer and push down on them with accessory provided.

Dad grinding the tomatoes

Dad grinding the tomatoes with an electric strainer/food mill

Grinding the Tomatoes for Sauce

Grinding the Tomatoes for Sauce

4. When the bowl is full of ground up tomatoes, throw the ground up tomatoes into a garbage bag. Using a ladle, scoop up the tomato sauce from the other bowl and fill each jar with it, leaving about 1 inch empty on top to give it room to expand when boiling.

Tomato sauce consistency

Tomato sauce consistency

5. Put each jar in a large pot then add enough water to cover up to where the tomato sauce is in the jar and boil for 20 minutes (see photo above and below).

Boiling pots of water with jars of fresh tomato sauce

Boiling pots of water with jars of fresh tomato sauce

6. Remove jars from the pot and place them in a warm oven. If there’s no more room to put them all in the oven, wrap jars with a towel.

As the jars cool, you will hear the tops of the lids “popping” as a vacuum is formed inside the jars. This is what preserves the tomato sauce for such a long time. You can then use the tomato sauce right out of the jar by heating it up, or adding meat, etc. to it.

Leave me a comment at the bottom if you’ve tried doing this and let me know how it worked out for you!

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Originally posted 10/20/17

Fresh Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

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Spaghetti alla carbonara is probably my favorite pasta dish. It has such simple ingredients – eggs, pancetta, butter – yet it is so rich and tasty. I love it made with fresh pasta because the pasta is more tender when you bite into it and the carbonara sauce clings better to it, whereas the dry pasta can be a little slippery and the sauce slides right off of it.

Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce (Pasta Sauce)

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Tomato sauce (pasta sauce, or some people call it gravy) is considered to be one of the five “mother sauces” that all cooks should know how to make, along with béchamel, velouté, hollandaise, and espagnole. If you can make these sauces, you can make any variations of them for every type of cuisine.

I like to use fresh herbs when they’re available but you can use dried herbs also. Just remember that dried herbs have a more concentrated and powerful flavor and so the quantities need to be adjusted (use more fresh herbs, less dried herbs). I add them in the beginning so that the sauce absorbs their flavors as it simmers.

I make either marinara, which is plain tomato sauce, ragù, which is a meat sauce (add meatballs, chicken pieces or sausages), or seafood (puttanesca, zuppa di pesce, etc.), depending on what we feel like eating.

big name secret recipes


Ingredients
2 cans tomato puree or crushed tomatoes (non-GMO if you can find it)
1 T olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, smashed and sliced
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp ground dried sage
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil or 3 fresh basil leaves
1 T fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 chicken bouillon cube
a splash of red wine
salt (if needed)

  1. add olive oil to the pot and sauté the garlic cloves.
  2. add the rosemary and continue to sauté (this will give it a stronger taste which I love!).
  3. add the cans of tomatoes and stir.
  4. add the herbs, and onion and garlic powders, stir.
  5. add the bouillon cube and stir to dissolve.
  6. add a splash of red wine, stir.
  7. simmer for about an hour. Add salt if it needs more. If it gets too thick, add a little bit of water or wine.

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Pesto sauce

Pesto Sauce

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I love pesto sauce so much I can eat it on Italian bread as a spread! The scent of basil reminds me of when I was little. My family and I lived in an apartment so we didn’t have a garden, but that didn’t stop my parents from planting herbs and vegetables in buckets and keeping them out on the fire escape during the summer. When they finally bought a house, basil was one of the first things they planted, along with tomatoes of course.

Pesto sauce is made with lots of fresh basil, although I’ve seen recipes substituting some of the basil with spinach and parsley to give it that nice green color. The basil in pesto will actually change to a brownish color after a short time because of oxidation (when certain substances react to being exposed to oxygen), but you can drop the leaves in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds to destroy the enzymes that cause it (read Why does my pesto turn brown?)

It also calls for pignoli, or pine nuts, which can be expensive so I usually leave them out and the sauce still has a wonderful, aromatic flavor.  And for the best flavor, I always use extra virgin olive oil. My favorite unfortunately cannot be bought here because it is made in my father’s town, Selvacava.

I like to use the food processor to mix the ingredients, but traditionally it’s made using a mortar and pestle.

Ingredients

1 clove of garlic
3 T of grated pecorino romano or parmiggiano reggiano
1 T pine nuts
50 leave of basil, rinsed and dried
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt

  1. in a food processor, add garlic, cheese and pine nuts and mix until it is a paste.
  2. add basil and salt and mix.
  3. slowly add the olive oil.

If you do not use it right away, the oil will separate from the rest of the ingredients so you have to stir it before adding it to anything.

I like to make a lot of pesto and freeze it because I don’t always have the time to prepare it just before I use it.

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