Every summer as my garden starts to produce tomatoes, I take advantage of this recipe.

You only need 6 pounds of tomatoes, which is perfect for the Ball Canner I bought to preserve jams and jellies.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

★★★★★

CANNING, Sauce

Servings: 7 cups Source: Small Batch Preserving

INGREDIENTS

12 cups chopped ripe plum tomatoes (about 6 lbs.), unpeeled

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried

1 tsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 bay leaves

2 tsp red wine vinegar or lemon juice

1/2 tsp pickling salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, sugar, pepper and bay leaves in a large stainless steel or enameled saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reuce heat and boil gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1.25 hours or until very thick. Press through a food mill or coarse sieve; remove and discard seeds and skins.

Add vinegar and salt to pulp.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch of rim (headspace). Process for 35 minutes for half-pint and pint jars as directed by your canning preferences. I use a Ball Electric Canner and on it you choose SAUCES and PROGRAM number 6.

Serving suggestions:

Savory Seafood Sauce
Stir together 1/2 cup Seasoned Tomato Sauce, 2 tbps each: lemon juice and prepared horseradish

Herbed Pizza Sauce
Combine 1 cup Seasoned Tomato Sauce, 1/2 tsp each: dried oregano, dried basil and dried parsely and 1 clove crushed garlic.

Link to Small Batch Preserving: