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junelynnky

Canning Recipe for tomatoes - Chunky basil pasta sauce

junelynn
14 years ago

I came across this recipe posted in one of the forums where you list what you canned for the year, plus various other recipes. Not sure which one it came from, but I want to tell you it's very good and pretty rich! The taste is just fantastic! It will be great for pizza sauce, as it comes out a bit sweet, or you could use it as a starter when you make spagetti sauce from scratch. I let mine cook down longer than 40 minutes to actually make it more of a sauce and I had used more tomatoes so it took longer. I think it's the 1/2 cup of fresh basil that it requires that makes it sweet, as you really don't use that much sugar, and possibly the wine. It's not sweet in the sugary sense, just sweet in the mix of flavors I taste. I had a little bit left over and I ate it with some odds and ends that I threw together for supper. It was DELICIOUS! The tomato paste I used was from Aldi's. Nothin' special. The wine I used was from Trader Joe's "Charles Shaw, Shiraz" as I buy it by the case. (3.99 a bottle). It's a dry red wine, but not overly tart. "Regina" red wine vinegar and fresh basil cut from my garden. Oh, and sweet vidalia onions. I did have a mix of tomatoes, Park's Whopper, Celebrity and another one I can think of the name at the time. Could be why it took longer to simmer into more thickness as the P.Whopper is really more for eating. I used the tomatoes I had. One makes do with what they've got. By the way guys, it's supposed to get in the mid 90's here in the piedmont of N.Carolina today (Charlotte area). Hot and humid! Tomatoes and squash, cukes and corn plants love it!!!

I ended up with 5 half pints of sauce.


Exported from MasterCook *

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

-------- ------------ --------------------------------

8 cups (2 L) coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes -- (about 9-12 tomatoes or 4 lb/2 kg)

1 cup chopped onion -- (250 mL)

3 cloves garlic -- minced

2/3 cup red wine -- (150 mL)

1/3 cup red wine vinegar (5 % strength) -- (75 mL)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (125 mL)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley -- (15 mL)

1 teaspoon pickling salt -- (5 mL)

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar -- (2 mL)

1 6-oz/156 mL) can tomato paste

Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt, sugar and tomato paste in a very large non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 35 minutes for pin (500 mL) jars and 40 minutes for quart (1 L) jars in a BWB.

Yield:

"8 cups"

Note: This sauce also makes an excellent base for a quick pizza.

Comments (8)

  • susytwo
    14 years ago

    I made 3 different tomato sauces last year, including this one.

    Now, there are 10+ jars of the other sauces left, but no jars are left from this one. It definitely was our favorite. I'm only making this one from now on.

  • ksrogers
    14 years ago

    You may want to add a half teaspoon of citric acid to each quart. The sweetness may also come from the tomato types. Some are very sweet and are also lower in natrual acid. adding citric ensures that you have a safe sauce to can. Sometimes fresh basil can add bitterness to a sauce, so its always good to add some only wnen serving.

  • junelynn
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks Ken, I'll write to add citric acid on my instructions for next time.

  • readinglady
    14 years ago

    That's Ellie Topp's recipe from "Small-Batch Preserving" and is safe to can as-is, but it does no harm to add citric acid and provides an added margin of safety, especially if you find yourself "taste-testing" before heating.

    A lot of red wine vinegars are stronger than the 5% minimum. My current bottle is 7% strength.

    Carol

  • annie1992
    14 years ago

    Carol, I thought that looked familiar as "your" recipe. I didn't can any last year but this year, if my tomatoes ever get ripe, it's on my list.

    Here it's struggling to get into the 70s and still in the 50s at night. We have officially the coldest July on record in Michigan now, and I love it because I hate summer and the heat. My tomatoes, though, are not amused...

    Annie

  • Linda_Lou
    14 years ago

    Thanks for the review on this recipe. I like to hear feedback from people on what is really good, and those not so good, too.
    Here it is in the high 90's to low 100's. Burning hot. I do not like this !! My pimentos do, though, and so do my tomatoes. Still none ripe,but should be soon.
    Had to buy a new fridge and new freezer this week ! One expensive week. My freeze has things icy, but not frozen hard. I get the new one tomorrow.
    The old fridge was freezing my tea, water, and milk. But, it would not make ice in the ice maker. Got disgusted with the problems so went and just spent a ton of money and got them !! Love the new fridge. French doors on top. Really easy to get things in and out of. Just lovely. Ice and water in the door.

  • busylizzy
    14 years ago

    Ah, good to hear it's a winner..looks like a good mater year so far, my plants are loaded and about 6ft tall. Not ripe yet, but that's ok the other veggies are going to keep me busy.
    Must have been a week for refers going Linda, my side by side was as warm as the outside temp. The chickens ate well, that day. Thankfully it was a thermostat/fan controller. Just not good timing I have 2 other small refers loaded for processing, the blueberries had to be frozen, oh well.

  • joannaw
    14 years ago

    Ok, I'm making this now...I doubled the recipe, used 8 lbs of tomatoes rather than 4, but after chopping they only came out to 12 cups (as opposed to the 16 the recipe called for), but I thought it would be ok since I was going by weight. Figured I just chopped finer than they did when testing the recipe. But now I've tasted it, and it's very vinegary! Is it supposed to be that way? And it's still rather thin for a pasta sauce, but I'm afraid if I boil it down much more the sharp flavor will only become more pronounced!

    This is my first home-canned pasta sauce, maybe the problem is I expect it to taste something like a store-bought? Is it supposed to be so vinegary?

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