Tomato sauce is best made outdoors, as using larger equipment makes for more efficient work. It can also get a little messy, and working outdoors on your lawn or patio is much more forgiving and aesthetic than a cramped kitchen. But most of all, making tomato sauce is at its best a family and friends affair, so the more space you have, the better. There are as many recipes and techniques for making tomato sauce as there are tomato sauce makers. The following is by no means the definitive way to make tomato sauce, but it certainly works for us. The following pieces of equipment enable you to quickly process one bushel of tomatoes in a morning or afternoon, yielding 10 to 12 one litre jars of tomato sauce.

Equipment: 

• Tomato crusher/seeder – we use a Reber model, which we purchased at Nella Cutlery in Toronto. It does an excellent job of extracting pulp from tomatoes, leaving stems, skins and seeds behind.

• Propane burner – we also acquired this at Nella Cutlery, and it can handle large pots. They throw out lots of BTUs and hook up to a standard BBQ propane tank.

• Large, stainless steel, heavy-bottomed pot

• Canning pot and basket – used to sterilize the sauce in the jars

• Canning jars – available at most hardware stores. We use 1-litre jars, but smaller jars work just as well.

Method:

1. Wash the tomatoes, and cut up into smaller pieces as required to fit into the hopper of the tomato crusher.

2. Process the tomatoes in the crusher. You need two pots or bowls – one for the extracted tomato pulp and one for the stems/skin/seeds.

3. Pour the pulp into the large pot and put on the propane burner. Bring the pulp up to a low boil, then reduce to a simmer. Skim foam off of the top as required.

4. In the meantime, sterilize the canning jars and lids – usually by placing in boiling water for a few minutes (this is the one job we usually do in another pot in the kitchen).

5. When the sauce has reached the desired consistency (2 hours or so, depending on how thick you want your sauce to be), add salt to taste, and use a ladle to fill the jars to within one-half an inch of the top of the lid. We usually throw in a couple of basil leaves in the bottom of each jar before adding the sauce. Put the lids on the jar and screw the tops on until just firm.

6. Remove the tomato sauce pot and fill the canning pot two-thirds full of water and bring to a boil on the burner.

7. Put the jars into the canning pot basket (we can do five at a time), and place the basket in the boiling water for 20 minutes. Remove jars and let cool. Repeat with remaining jars.

8. As the jars cool, you will hear a popping sound as a vacuum is created in the jars by the seal. We process 3 bushels of tomatoes each year, enough to keep our three children happily fed with pasta and tomato sauce, and pizza, for a year. Tomatoes in bulk are easy to procure in season from farmers’ markets and farm stands throughout the Kawarthas.

Happy canning!