How to Make Pasta Sauce

A photo essay

1. Buy Roma

Roma “Pomodoro” (tomatoes)

are the fruit of choice for many recipes.

These oblong tomatoes have more flesh than your regular, “garden variety”

tomatoes.

2. Go Home(ah)

Load up your panniers and pedal your tomatoes home.

Stick to your 100 mile diet by not adding to

greenhouse gases on the way home from the market.

Burn off some calories in advance of all the pasta

you’re going to eat.

3. Sort’em

Layout out the tomatoes on a tarp. Pick out the ripest

ones and put the rest aside to sit in the sun for a day.

Your sauce will taste best if made from the ripe ones.

4. Wash’em

Soak the tomatoes in water and some sort of vegetable

soap to wash off any dirt and pesticides.

Rinse well to avoid foamy spaghetti.

An old kitchen sink works well for this, but a big

colander will do.

5. Cut’em Up

Cut the washed tomatoes into quarters.

Be sure to cut out any stems and white flesh.

(Thanks to Patrick who helped us with this step).

6. Cook’em

Put a bit of olive oil in a big stock pot.

Add in the cut tomatoes in small batches.

Cook until they release their juice and you have a

nice soupy “mash”.

7. Strain’em

Remove the excess liquid by filtering the mash through a sheet or

cheesecloth.

Ben’s parents taught us to use a half-bushel basket

with a sheet in side.

Capture the liquid in a pot. It makes great soup stock.

8. Soup’s On

Straining the mash removes almost half of the liquid.

No point canning water!

It makes great soup stock.

Share with your neighbours!

10. Extrude It!

An extruder separates the seeds and the skins from the thick, “pulpy” sauce that you want to can.

We started with a manual, crank version, but

eventually invested in an electric model.

10. Extrude it!

Add the mash to the hopper at the top. Force it into the

shaft with the plunger.

The engine turns an auger that forces the mash

through a cone sieve.

The skins and seeds fall out the end. The sauce comes through the sides of the cone into the funnel and

down into the pot.

11. Can it!

Mix the sauce with some diced onion, a few basil

leaves and a pinch of salt.

Put it into clean, 1-litre mason jars, leaving some headspace at the top. Be

sure to wipe the rim.

Put new lids and screw tops on finger tight.

13. Pressure

Can It!For years, we used the water processing method in which you boil the jars under water for 40 minutes. The air inside the jars escapes through the finger tightened lids, leaving

behind a vacuum that bacteria abhor.

Since modern tomatoes tend to have low acidity, you’re better off using a pressure

canner to ensure that the jars are processed well.

14. Repeat!

Yesterday, we processed 3 bushels of tomatoes into about 32 litres of thick

tomato sauce.

Since we’re sharing that batch with Patrick &

Chantal, we’ll probably need to do another 2

bushels to see us through the winter.