Homemade spaghetti sauce

[Deleted]

Who here makes their own spaghetti sauce? I mean honest to goodness, homemade, from vine, sauce? I make it from big cans of tomato sauce, add paste and herbs but I'm looking for a recipe that I can make straight off the farm. Trying to be as self sufficient as possible and this is the year to get that ball rolling

TIA for any recipes, tips, ideas!!!

[Melissa]

I start with the recipe in the Ball Blue Book, then add a little more of this and that until I like it. One thing I do is cook the tomato sauce down in the oven first to thicken it before I add the spices.

[farmchix]

I use fresh tomatoes, ground turkey, fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh garlic, onions....Cook the tomatoes down without peels. Saute the ground turkey and add some fresh fennel. Once the turkey is brown, add onions and green peppers. When onions are translucent, add fresh garlic. Simmer everything together with the rest of the fresh herbs. I leave the tomatoes 'chunky'.

If you want to make it meatless, skip the turkey and fennel.

[Deleted]

Grind meat, sprinkle 1 TBS Mrs. Dash mix over, add 1 big diced onion, brown well. Add fresh diced peeled tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes, drained, celery and a green pepper diced small. Simmer 10 minutes. Cook the spaghetti, mix all together, we like a 1/4 cup of our homemade ketchup, simmer for 5 minutes.

It is so quick to make, we don't can sauce, only diced tomatoes canned in tomato juice and plain tomato juice....James

[paquebot]

I make 5 gallons at a time but may split it into thirds and vary the spices. That may sound like a lot but it's only equal to 26 regular jars of Classico or Ragu. No recipe for that but it's based on one which I came up with years ago for a smaller batch.

30# tomatoes
1 cup onions
1 cup green peppers
4 tbls parsley
2 tbls oregano
1 tbls basil
2 tsp black pepper
4 tsp salt
½ tsp allspice
½ cup brown sugar
6 garlic cloves

Chop tomatoes in blender and simmer 10-15 minutes. Press through sieve to remove skin and seeds. Add everything else after chopping the rest of the vegetables. Simmer another 10-15 minutes. Pressure can 25 minutes at 10#.

Martin

[Deleted]

Apr 21, 2015 20:50:20 GMT paquebot said:

I make 5 gallons at a time but may split it into thirds and vary the spices. That may sound like a lot but it's only equal to 26 regular jars of Classico or Ragu. No recipe for that but it's based on one which I came up with years ago for a smaller batch.

30# tomatoes
1 cup onions
1 cup green peppers
4 tbls parsley
2 tbls oregano
1 tbls basil
2 tsp black pepper
4 tsp salt
½ tsp allspice
½ cup brown sugar
6 garlic cloves

Chop tomatoes in blender and simmer 10-15 minutes. Press through sieve to remove skin and seeds. Add everything else after chopping the rest of the vegetables. Simmer another 10-15 minutes. Pressure can 25 minutes at 10#.

Martin

Martin,

That looks like a really good recipe.  If I use a Squeezo Tomato thingy to rid the sauce of the seeds and skins, do I forego the first 10-15 minute simmering all together or do I need to simmer it instead for 30 minutes on the back end?

[paquebot]

Apr 21, 2015 21:41:46 GMT @trellis said:

Martin,

That looks like a really good recipe.  If I use a Squeezo Tomato thingy to rid the sauce of the seeds and skins, do I forego the first 10-15 minute simmering all together or do I need to simmer it instead for 30 minutes on the back end?

I use a chinois sieve which is at least 50 years old.  Tomatoes have to be cooked before they can be pressed through very easily.  Used to also cook the other vegetables with the tomatoes and press the whole works through.  That resulted in the type of sauce before the "it's in there" slogan came along and one could see the bits of other things.  Now they are prepared separate and then added for final simmering. 

The big batches are the ones most complicated and yet the most simple.  Starts out with about 10 gallons of puree which is cooked and then pressed to 9 gallons of juice.  (Takes about 75# of tomatoes.)  That's cooked down to 4½ gallons of real thick puree.  Everything else is prepared in a separate pot and depends upon how many and what kind of peppers and onions are on hand.  I more than double my basic recipe and even heavier on garlic.  Minor mistake last year was tripling the oregano and there was initially too much "bite".  Solved that with another cup of brown sugar.  Whole process, by the way, takes 36 hours and worth every minute of it!  By the time it's done, I can't tell if it tastes good or not and rely on my wife to say if I need any adjustments.

Martin  

[Deleted]

Thank you!!

[paquebot]

One can also use Mrs. Wages mixes for variety when making big batches. Last year the 5-gallon batch was canned as is. The previous year saw it split into thirds with one getting a packet of pizza sauce mix and another getting ketchup mix. With what was left over from 2012, 5 different flavors currently available when spaghetti is on the menu. Jars are even stored in random sequence so no two consecutive meals are the same.

Martin

[Muller's Lane Farm]

For thicker sauces without having to cook on the stove for hours, I do one or more of the following:

Course chop tomatoes and let drain in a chinois.

Roast the tomatoes in a large pan in the oven.

Make sauce then let sit in fridge overnight for the solids to sink & excess water to rise to the top (scoop and discard water)

Make paste from previously dehydrated tomato skins that were ground into powder.


For seasoning, I use onions, sweet peppers, garlic, basil, marjoram, thyme, savory, rosemary, sage & salt.

[Skandi]

I cook huge batches of tomatos plain when I have them from the garden, cooked down to a nice thick sauce, most often blended to just puree the skins as I can't be bothered to remove them all! But sometimes chunky. This is then frozen. that or canned ones are the base.

1lb tomato sauce
1lb mince meat
1 large onion
2 medium carrots
2 sticks celery
Thyme, rosemary, oregano/marjoram, bay leaf, salt and pepper

finely Dice and fry one large onion, remove it from the pan,
Brown 1lb of mince (your choice on the type I always use beef)
Finely dice two medium carrots, and two sticks of celery,
Put everything into a pan large enough for it all, add one bay leaf.
Add one large clove of garlic, 1lb of tomatos and about half a lb of water (yes strange measure.. think water used to swill out the can!)
Cook down for 30minutes or so, add 1 part Rosemary 2 parts thyme and 4 parts oregano/marjoram cook for 5 mins more.
Remove the bayleaf add Salt and pepper to taste.

Red wine improves it, as does beefstock instead of water.

I also make this with a lot more vegetables. double the tomatoes and add whatever is lurking in your fridge, peppers, beetroot, parsnip, pumpkin... cook for 2-3 hours. most of the veg will vanish into the sauce. I then serve this as pasta sauce the first day, then recook it with more spices and some beans and serve it as chili the next couple of days.

[willowgirl]

I love the "Annie's Salsa" recipe for canning salsa -- it makes such a nice, thick salsa! -- that a few years ago, I decided to use it for spaghetti sauce, too. I just switched the spices from cumin and cilantro to basil, oregano and fennel! I liked the results and have made it that way ever since.

[farmchix]

I make a few different recipes, all starting with fresh tomatoes. Much like Cyndi, I have a roasted tomato and garlic recipe. I usually leave the sauce chunky. I make homemade meatballs separately and freeze. I make a lot of wedding soup in the winter, so making up all those meatballs and freezing comes in quite handy and makes a lighter load when making the soup. My sauces always have fresh basil, oregano, garlic, onion and bell pepper. That is pretty much my 'base'. I add different things to make different sauces. I even will roast some squash if I have it for one of my sauces. When I make up big batches, especially with the specialty sauces, I print cute labels off the Avery Label website and put them on the jars. Then, if I ever need a quickie gift, I make some fresh bread and put it in a basket with the pasta (dry in a canning jar) and one of my sauces.

[Callie]

I made tomato sauce successfully for the first time this year and I love it!
Someone here does it this way so it's not MY plan...but they haven't posted it, so I will.

Put a ton of cored, quartered PASTE tomatoes in a turkey roaster pan. (I added 5-6 red bell peppers and 3 large onions) Cook at 150 degrees for 12 hours or so. At this point, I ladeled off some of the liquid. Then run through a sieve. I have a hand crank thingy for this but there are many kinds. Ta da...tomato sauce. Make spaghetti sauce from there is just a matter of adding the herbs and seasonings that you like. I estimated that I had 12 quarts of sauce and added 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.

I didn't add meat, since we don't usually have meat with our spaghetti or pizzas, so I water bathed it in pints for 20 minutes.