Homemade Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

           I have to say, this is the first time I attempted to make homemade, freezer spaghetti sauce. My plan was to make a spaghetti sauce base to start, and then, if needed, I could add to it when using it in a meal. With my love to be in the kitchen and family traditions that had been passed down for generations, I felt there was nothing to lose. How hard could this be? Right? I was only trying this to see if it was going to be something I wanted to continue doing anyway.

            After doing some research. I soon realized that there was a lot to learn. First, I needed to first understand when to get tomatoes and the types of tomatoes that make the best sauces. I discovered that for the most part, it did not matter what kind of tomato to use, but a plum tomato or Roma tomato would be a “meatier” tomato. Also, a Roma tomato has a thicker wall and not as many seeds.

            To get started, I sent my husband to the local farmers market to buy some tomatoes. I needed to get an idea of what was available and see how much it would cost. I determined not to spend more than a dollar per pound of tomatoes. My husband was able to get a price of $20 for a half bushel of Celebrity Tomatoes. This came out to approximately 25 pounds of tomatoes for $.80 per pound. These were not tomatoes with bruises or bad spots, which are called "seconds." ("Seconds" would have been even cheaper, but the total amount of sauce would not have been as great.) These were beautiful "prime" tomatoes.

            First, we put all the tomatoes in the sink full of water to wash off any dirt or chemicals that remained on the tomatoes. (Having deep sinks is a big plus!)

            After washing them, I cut the tomatoes into wedges that were small enough to fit my Kitchen Aid mixer attachment. I also removed stems during this step.

           I processed the tomatoes (seeds, skins, and all) with the use of the Fruit Strainer/ Food Grinder attachment. Due to the type of tomatoes, we had a lot of juice produced with the pulp. In order to use everything, we strained as much of the juice as we could into a separate container. Doing this extra step may seem to be more of a pain in the neck, but for us, it was helpful in two ways. First, being that there is less juice in the pot, it meant less cooking time to achieve a thicker spaghetti sauce. Secondly, it gave me Tomato Juice for other recipes. I love using tomato juice to make my mom's Goulash Recipe - a fabulous, simple, quick, home cooked meal for busy nights of the week. (A recipe for another time!) We also re-processed the "scraps," just to make sure we got as much pulp as we could.

            In my stock pot, I have the pulp for my tomato sauce. To aid in the thickening process, I add tomato paste. The tomato mixture was brought to a simmer - not allowing it to boil. While this mixture started to heat up, I cooked my other vegetables to add flavor to the sauce.

            In a saucepan, I heated 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil. Once hot, I added fresh garlic, onion, and green pepper. I cooked the vegetable mixture until soft. My family does not like chunks of tomato in the sauce. Plus I live with picky eaters, and this gives me other way of packing the veggies into my meal without anyone knowing. When the vegetables are soft, I run them through my food processor until vegetables liquefy.

            The vegetables were added to the tomato mixture in the stock pot. At that point, I added my spices - oregano, parsley, sugar, (we love a sweeter sauce), and salt - and stirred the mixture well.

            Once all ingredients were added to the stock pot, I allowed my spaghetti sauce to simmer for 3 hours, until it reached my desired consistency. We stirred the pot about every 15-20 minutes to make sure the sauce did not scorch on the bottom. (Remember: Keep the sauce at just a light simmer. It is better to have to cook the mixture a longer duration rather than to turn up the heat. Increased heat will cause it to boil and likely scorch.)

            When the spaghetti sauce reached the optimal consistency, I removed my pot from the heat and allowed it to cool for another 3 hours before placing in the refrigerator. Once completely cooled, we put the freshly-made sauce in quart size freezer bags - 4 cups of sauce per bag. From this half bushel, we got nearly 20 cups of spaghetti sauce and about 16 cups of tomato juice! Needless to say, we were both extremely happy, and we are excited to do this again!

ENJOY!!!

Homemade Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

½ bushel tomatoes (~25lb)

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp Olive oil

2 – 6oz. Cans tomato paste

2 Tbsp parsley

2 Tbsp oregano

1 cup sugar

Salt to taste

Wash tomatoes. Cut and core tomatoes in small wedges to fit through Kitchen Aid Fruit Strainer/ Food Grinder attachment.

Set up Kitchen Aid Fruit Strainer/ Food Grinder attachment with a large bowl to catch the tomato sauce in and a medium bowl to catch the "scraps" in.

Process tomatoes by running tomatoes through attachment. Re-process all the "scraps" from the first round of processing through the attachment again to get more tomato extracted. After all tomatoes have been processed, strain off excess water for thicker sauce. Place tomato sauce in stock pot and start to cook down the sauce. Stir in tomato paste to start to thicken the sauce.

In small sauce pan, heart olive oil and saute garlic, onion, and green pepper, until soft. Once vegetable have cooked, place in food processor and make into to desired consistence.

Add vegetables to tomato sauce. Stir in parsley, oregano, sugar, and salt until well incorporated.

Cook tomato sauce mixture slowly at a slight simmer for about 4 hours or until sauce has reached desired consistence. The longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce will get as the water from the tomatoes cooks off. But stir the pot every 15-20 minutes to avoid scorching the sauce.

Once spaghetti sauce has reach desired consistence, remove from stove and allow to cool before placing in refrigerator to cool completely.

After sauce is cold, it is ready to be bagged in freezer safe bags and stored in freezer. Sauce will last 3-4 months or longer if using a deep freezer.

Makes approximately 20 cups of spaghetti sauce.