Spagetti Sauce recipe?

[Newfygirl]

We are going to have a ton of tomatoes this year and I would like to make and freeze some spagetti sauce. Any recipes out there? I want to freeze as oppose to can because I don't know how to can.

[rhapsody]

Mish, you can learn all about canning online! That's how John learned how to make jam. He even made some spaghetti sauce but he used a seasoning mix we got at Wal-Mart. It was a bit too spicy for the boys so we'll be looking for other recipes.

I'll have to make sure to track this thread so I can "borrow" any recipes posted here! LOL!

[Newfygirl]

I'm afraid to can. I d on't want to give myself or my family salmonella or something!

[Mary Ann]

Spaghetti sauce is considered a low acid food and needs a pressure canner. Canning tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes is water bath canning. Canning is really simple, once you understand the principles involved. And your big risk isn't really salmonella; it's botulism.

Freezing tomatoes is easy. Carve out the core (the spot where the stem goes) and throw them in the freezer whole. I always put them on a cookie sheet, and then repackage the frozen ones in Ziploc bags. Then in the winter when you want to cook with them, just run the frozen maters under hot water and the skin slips right off. Then you can throw them in the pot. They're wonderful added to soups, and make fantastic salisbury steak because their acids help tenderize the meat.

Spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes is more involved. Normally we run the cooked maters through a food mill to get rid of the peel and seeds. Do you have a food mill, like a Foley food mill or an attachment to your mixer like KitchenAid does? Then you can either simmer and stir and simmer for a long time, or you can strain the tomato pulp through a muslin cloth. Then you'll have a thicker, richer sauce base.

To that, depending on the amount you've gotten, I like to add some Italian sausage links cut into chunks and browned, and some chunks of sirloin that have been browned in oil. For the freezer I think I'd leave the veggies out until I go to serve, because freezing can make veggies watery and weird. But I like to have chunks of zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, whole mushrooms, chunks of onion, and chunks of sweet pepper. I like to saute them in olive oil and garlic, and add a bunch of herbs like oregano, thyme, and basil. I salt and pepper to taste, and sometimes add a little zing of red pepper. All that stuff goes in the pot and is simmered over the lowest heat possible (very easy to scorch the bottom, so stir frequently) and watched until it's time to eat. Then I just cook up some pasta (I like cappellini with it, myself; yep, a skinny little noodle with that chunky monkey sauce!) and eat hearty.

[Newfygirl]

OK. Step by step. Slowly. Botulism. *shudder*

[Mary Ann]

It's easier if you read up on it first, and then ask questions. Can you get a copy of either The Ball Blue Book or Stocking Up III? They have timetables and pics for us dummies. And boy do they make it look easy! (*psst!* It really is. )

[Newfygirl]

I'm scared! The boiling of the water, the sealing...the botulism....

[rhapsody]

Mish, looks like you'll need (as MA said) a pressure canner to can spaghetti sauce (or low acid veggies). With the little research I've done after MA posted, I've decided that will probably end up being my Christmas gift for John . . . unless my parents want to get it for him.

Many years ago I received some cookbooks from my grandmother. One of them was for canning. Obviously, I need to pull it out and do a bit more research. ;-D

Don't be skeered! You (and your family!) should be safe as long as you follow the directions and use the proper tools.

[Mary Ann]

Uhh, a note about those old cookbooks.

In general, it's not a great idea to use them, at least in relation to processing times. Over the years some things have changed. Tomato varieties are far less acidic than they used to be, and many advocate either adding a shot of vinegar or using a pressure canner to process. Also, the old paraffin wax seals on jams and jellies are no longer considered safe. Shoot, I used that when I first started, and remember it from my mother's kitchen. But I don't do it anymore. Processing times on other things have changed too, thanks to lots of discoveries in testing.

Tina, I heartily recommend an All American pressure canner! Those are the Cadillacs of pressure canners, machined so closely that you don't even use a rubber seal; you just slick the edges of the canner and the lid with vegetable oil and screw 'er down. It uses a dial guage instead of a popper type, and is easy to have recalibrated. They're fantastic.

Getcherself the Ball Blue Book--- not an older one (there's a gazillion editions) but a brand spankin' new up-to-date one, and use that. If you have antique recipes you wish to try, find the ingredient in them that takes the most processing time (like meat in your spaghetti sauce), look up the processing time in your current book, and go by that.

And the sealing's easy with the two piece lids out there! There's nothing so satisfying than to hear that *pop!* when you've pulled something out of the canner. You'll also learn how to hear the difference when you tap your fingernail on a sealed lid versus an unsealed lid. Seeing all those pretty jars all lined up and glittering like jewels, you'll really be glad you did it. And some cold winter day, when it's snowing sideways, you can open a jar and taste a little of the summer of '08.

[AmberC]

Mary Ann, can you PLEASE stop referencing things like snowballs and snow flying sideways! Please??

[Mary Ann]

LOL! Okay, I'm open to suggestions. Would you prefer I call it s**wb@lls?

[Newfygirl]

I'd call it "$%#snowballs"! Really, do you think I can make a freeze-able sauce? I just wonder if its frozen it might taste fresher?

[AmberC]

I just don't want to have to think about that stuff right now when it's still at least 80* and I can ride outside without a jacket!

[Mary Ann]

Actually, what I would do (if you're really skeered of canning) is to put up sauce and paste for the freezer. This would mean you need to get a gadget like a Foley food mill or a Victoria mill, to quickly separate the seeds and skin from the pulp. Then you either cook down your sauce (depending on your tomato variety, it may be pretty thin) or strain it in a muslin bag. One year I got hit with the stoopid stick and grew a little over 100 tomato plants. That year I used an old muslin pillowcase do to it for me, and hung it from a cupboard door to drain. (The stuff you drain out is clearish, and you can pour it around azaleas, rhodies, and other acid loving plants.) Then I scooped out the pulp and canned it; but you could freeze it just as easily. If you didn't also grow a bunch of onions and peppers, you might as well just freeze it as plain tomato sauce because then it's more versatile; a base for chili and real tomato soup (not that weird orange stuff from Campbell's) as well as spaghetti sauce. And I'd still freeze some whole with the peels on; they're simply delightful thrown into some bean soup, beef stew, and other winter lovelies.

BTW, what varieties of tomatoes did you grow? The best ones for sauces are Roma, Roma II, and that type. They're plum type tomatoes that are extra meaty. Many of the beefsteak types are just too juicy.

Amber, I bet you're in your glory now! We have more heat coming, and it'll probably be another six weeks before there's much of anything else.

[Newfygirl]

I have a lot of Romas, a few cherry tomatoes (which will never make it to a can or freezer because they're sooo yummy on salads), some Better Boy. I planted waaaay too many tomatoes this year.