Tomato Season

So in the previous post I wrote about letting go of my garden for the year, and was super lucky to have Horse Shoe Ranch come through for me on 75lbs of tomatoes for my canning needs, I spent a very hectic few days trying to put as many of these babies away as I could.  I canned most of them as quarts using the raw pack method, many people wanted to know how many jars that makes,and to be honest not that many, I got 21 quarts of tomatoes.  Which isn't even enough for us to use a jar a week, let the rationing and counting down to next years canning season officially begin.   I was really looking forward to making ketchup this year, but it looks like that isn't in the cards, but I did find an amazing recipe for a tomato sauce that I love, if you've got 12lbs of tomatoes you need to get rid of I highly suggest you make this!

Tomato Sauce with Roasted Pepper and Garlic

6 garlic bulbs

4 medium red or yellow bell peppers

12 lbs tomatoes

3 TBS brown sugar, packed

2 TBS celtic grey salt

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

1 TSP black pepper

1 TBS red pepper flake

2 Cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves

1 Cup lightly packed fresh herbs ( I used parsley and thyme)

6 TBS bottled lemon juice

Roast peppers and garlic in a 400 degree oven till the pepper skins blacken and the garlic is soft, 30-40 minutes, transfer peppers and garlic to a bowl and cover until cool enough to handle, peel peppers and discard seeds.  Add peppers and squeeze roasted garlic from skin into food processor or blender and puree till smooth.  While peppers and garlic are roasting and cooling peel the tomatoes using a hot water bath, if you like your sauce chunky chop half the tomatoes, and puree the other half, or you also can puree all the tomatoes if you prefer.  In a large sauce pan combine tomatoes, peppers, garlic, sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and allow to cook down for 60-70 minutes.   After reducing sauce, remove from heat and add fresh herbs.  Add 1TBS lemon juice to pint jars, filling jars leaving an 1/2 inch headspace, process in a hot water bath for 35 minutes.  Makes 6 pint jars.