{Delicious Meatless Spaghetti Sauce}

Although we live in a city, I garden in our backyard, and this is that time of the year where tomatoes are starting to ripen. Not to jinx it, but we get a generous amount of tomatoes every year! I really love tomatoes, but even I can't eat that much! In the past, I've done a delicious and easy salsa recipe (found HERE), and a few years ago I had a lot of tomatoes still green when we got our first frost that I made a relish.

This morning I weighed my tomatoes - 5 lbs! What to do with that? I didn't want more salsa, so the next best thing, I thought, would be homemade spaghetti sauce. I've never done it from scratch, only used store-bought, but we all know how different (and better) things taste when they'Re made from scratch. Am I right?!

So... let's dive into it!

Why I chose a meatless variety: I wanted to make a big batch - can it, so we could enjoy it for more than one meal. Canning meat products is more complicated (don't want bacteria to start breeding and spoil everything), and this process usually requires a pressure canner (which I don't have, have never used, and they are expensive). Plus, meatless given you more options when adding meat later - you can do the traditional ground beef/pork, but it can also be chicken, even sausage; the possibilities are many!

I browsed through a few recipes and while using THIS ONE as my main base, I also perused this resource for tips.

(missing from the photo are the cans on tomato paste and

store-bought tomatoes - all of the tomatoes here were

grown in our backyard; also, you see brown sugar there?

I didn't end up adding it)

INGREDIENTS:

* 10 lbs tomatoes (fresh, peeled and chopped)
* 4 medium onions (I used yellow Spanish, about 500 g chopped)
* 3 tbsp chopped garlic (I use the already chopped kind)
* 1 cup oil (I used sunflower oil)
* 3 bay leaves
* 2 tsp dried oregano
* 1/4 tsp dried basil
* 1 1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
* 2 tbsp dried parsley
* 1 tsp cayenne pepper (for a little bit of zing!)
* 4 tsp salt
* 2 little cans of tomato paste (mine were 5.5 oz each)

NOTE: you'll notice that the original recipe linked above calls for 1/3 cup of brown sugar. After reading some of the comments that the sauce ended up being too sweet for many tastes, I just skipped adding the sugar altogether.

YIELD: just over 3.5 L of sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1. Peel and chop tomatoes (this step takes forever! but it's gotta be done). Different ideas on how to peel tomatoes are explained here: 3 ways to peel tomatoes. I used the boiling water method as I don't have a gas stove nor could I imagine doing this with 10 pounds of tomatoes! I think the knife method probably take more time as well.

2. Chop onions; sauté in oil until soft using a heavy bottom pot.

3. Drain the liquid from tomatoes and add them to now-tender onions. Add all of the spices and mix well. Bring everything to a boil.

4. Reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer for about 2 hours; don't forget to mix occasionally!

(Left to right: - at boiling point - after 2 hours covered - almost at the end of the process)

5. You'll notice that your sauce reduced in volume, but became kind of watery. After the 2 hours of cooking with the lid on, remove the lid, add tomato paste and cook for an additional 1 hour, this time, UNCOVERED. This will evaporate some of the liquid.

6. While the sauce is cooking, sterilize jars and lids (I used 7 500 ml jars).

7. When your sauce is ready, remove from heat and pour into jars (make sure the rim is clean and dry before sealing the jars).

8. To ensure the sauce doesn't spoil, I gave it about a 35-minute hot water bath (I know it sounds funny, but here's how you do that: see Step 10 - Processing).





9. Let them cool and store in a dark & cool place.







There was a bit left over, enough for a small spaghetti portion. I also had some yummy bratwurst sausages in my fridge. Taking the casing off, I broke the sausage apart and cook on medium on the skillet, breaking chunks apart with a wooden spoon. It's like having ground pork, only with spices already mixed in! At the end of cooking, add the sauce, mix well and top your favourite pasta with it!

Bon appétit!

Nadia