{canning} roasted marinara sauce

Back in August...

My in-laws have a pretty BOUNTEOUS garden (or they did during the peak of the season) and they had TOMATOES coming out their ears! A few different times, I brought enough home to make some salsa. And MAN is fresh homemade salsa (or pico de gallo) tasty!

Pap & Grandma went on a little trip for a few days so they asked me if I'd come over and pick their tomatoes every 2-3 days. And so I did. (Jackson liked helping too- he thought it was a treasure hunt searching all under and around for the RED ones ready to pick.) Each day time I went to pick I brought home almost a whole grocery bag filled with them!

What am I going to do with ALL of these tomatoes?! So, I thought I'd try my hand at making Marinara Sauce to can. It was an experience, a lot of prep and work but it is also VERY yummy. I did these 2 pans of tomatoes, onion, garlic, etc. and it only made almost 2 quarts. Sheesh. That part makes me crazy.

Below is the recipe I used, with some of my own alterations. I also consulted with this recipe, which I really like because she separates her sauce making into 2-3 days. This blog has great visuals for sauce newbies (like me.) I may try her recipe next time, but I think it's pretty similar to this one I used.

Roasted Tomato Marinara Sauce with Garlic and Oregano

Although 10 pounds of tomatoes sounds like a lot, roasting concentrates that into 6-7+ cups, enough for 3-4 pint jars. (I learned that picking tomatoes @ Pap's house can get you 5 lb. in 1 day.) One jar will serve 4 for dinner over pasta. This sauce will keep fresh in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. You can also freeze it or pressure-can it. To roast this many tomatoes at once, you will need to use two roasting pans so as not to crowd the ingredients while roasting. That may require two ovens or roasting in two batches. This recipe is easily halved.

Yield: 7-8 cups (approximately 2 liters)

Ingredients

• 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) fresh, organic tomatoes
• 16 whole, peeled, large, plump organic garlic cloves
• ½ c. extra virgin olive oil
• ½ c. dry red wine  (or use chicken or vegetable broth)
• 6 T. fresh oregano leaves (or 6 sprigs of fresh oregano from 3/4 oz. package fresh oregano)
• 3/4 oz. package of fresh basil
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 1 T. kosher salt or sea salt
• 2 t. ground black pepper
• lemon juice, divided

Tools: large roasting pans and a food processor

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees (218C). Get out  two large roasting pans. I use a big stainless steel All Clad (like for roasting a turkey). If you don’t have roasting pans, use large heavy (or doubled) disposable aluminum pans. I used my big rimmed cookie sheets.
2. Wash the tomatoes. Depending on the type of tomato, you may need to cut out the core first, as with large Beefsteak or Heirloom varieties. Then, cut tomatoes into large chunks. Don’t cut the pieces too small. Big chunks are good. The smaller the pieces are the faster they will roast.
3. Place tomatoes in the roasting pan; add garlic cloves, oil, broth, oregano, basil, onion, salt and pepper. Toss with your hands.
4. Place pans in the oven (s) and roast until tomatoes have reduced and are starting to get a few black edges. The pan should still have some juices, not be dry.  Depending on your oven it should take 45-60 minutes. Stir half way through. If the tomatoes are really juicy, it may take longer.
5. Remove pan from oven, set on the stove top and allow to cool a few minutes until you can handle it. Carefully transfer the roasted tomatoes into (a Victorio Strainer- see notes below) or a food processor with a steel blade and pulse 5-6 times. (You'll need to do this in batches- won't all fit in your blender. When it's blended, put it in a big pot or bowl. Continue adding and pulsing tomatoes.) You can also use an immersion blender (stick blender) in a deep pot or bowl to minimize splattering.
6. The sauce it ready to serve, or cool completely to refrigerate,  freeze or process for canning.
7. IMPORTANT NOTE: To can, add 2 T. lemon juice to each quart immediately PRIOR to filling with sauce (use 1 T. lemon juice for pints). Next add the tomato sauce, until you have 1/2" of headspace left. Using a plastic (not metal...it can damage the jars) knife, poke it along the sides of the jar to remove any air bubbles. Re-fill a bit if necessary. 
8. Take a small piece of the paper towel, wipe the rim. Using the magnetic wand, get a lid out of the pot and place it on your jar. Hand-tighten a metal ring around the top, and it's ready for the canner.
9. I like to quickly prepare two jars at a time, and add them to the canner simultaneously. As the jars are added to the canning basket, it's important to keep it balanced, or the jars will topple over.
10. Keep preparing jars two at a time, and add them until the canner is full. Carefully lower the basket. When the canner is full, make sure you have a couple inches of water over the jars. If you don't, add more water. Bring the water to a full boil, replace the lid, and set your timer (PROCESS 35 minutes for pints; 40 minutes for quarts*). Remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes, and then remove your jars, placing them on a counter/table lined with a towel. Repeat until all the jars have been processed.
11. Leave the jars untouched for 24 hours. After that time, you can take off the band (some keep it on) clean the bottles, label the top, and place in your pantry.

I ended up making 2 different batches (same recipe) of sauce, and ended up with a GRAND total of 5 quarts. Seems so chinsy for ALL the time and work I put into it, but the sauce is REALLY good and I think I'll even do it again next year.

A few things I learned on my new adventure making marinara sauce: 

   1. You MUST use a water bath canner when canning tomatoes (no steam canner allowed). Canning tomatoes or tomato sauce is very delicate and you have to be sure you do it right so you and your family don't get food poisoning. No pressure. :)

2. I was SO glad I had access to a Victorio Strainer. The 1st batch of sauce I made, I just scooped my roasted tomatoes, etc. into my food processor and pulsed it a bit. I kind of like the look of the chunks of onion and garlic, etc. in my sauce. However, the 2nd batch of sauce I made I borrowed a Victorio Strainer and it was SO easy. I scooped the roasted goodness into the top and Jackson cranked on the handle and voila! Yummy, smooth marinara sauce like that from an italian restaurant! I think next time I'll stick with the strainer because it was SO easy! (And the kids had fun helping with it too.)