A little over a week ago Rosz posted a comment on my post regarding pressure canning tomatoes. She commented that she prefers to have ready-made sauce rather than just canned tomatoes. Thinking it would be easier. It is easy to have ready-made sauce, and I put up lots of it. I also like to have simple crushed or diced tomatoes on hand as it gives me more versatility, and allows me to add fresh herbs from my winter windowsill garden. We are having pasta tonight so I thought I would share with you how I turn canned tomatoes into sauce. First you need to decide if you want to use crushed or diced tomatoes. Reiley prefers the crushed tomato sauce with fettuccine so I just grab a couple of 500 ml jars of crushed tomatoes and we are ready to go.
First, you need to decide if you want to use crushed or diced tomatoes. Reiley prefers the crushed tomato sauce with fettuccine so I just grab a couple of 500 ml jars of crushed tomatoes and we are ready to go. Now if I had been a little more organized today, I would have done this early this morning and had it simmering in the crockpot all day. Life intervened early today and I didn't get to it. So we are going to use the saucepan method. Pour your preserves into the pot, add whatever herbs you prefer, I am adding some fresh basil and thyme. A generous tablespoon of brown sugar, some salt and pepper, and caramelized onions and garlic round out the sauce.
Stir everything in and simmer on the stove for about 30 minutes. As I said it will taste better if you have it simmering in a crockpot all day but this is good too. You can add this sauce to meat if you like or just use the sauce. I am going to add it to ground pork, if I was just using the sauce on pasta I would probably use diced tomatoes.
I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't preserve ready-made sauce, I make and preserve lots of it. I don't want you to feel that it is your only option for quick meals. This sauce took me about 35 minutes to make. I mixed it up and had it simmering first, so by the time I had the ground pork and pasta ready the sauce was good to go. If I had remembered to put it in the crockpot on warm before I left this morning it would have been ready when I came home. The best part is that I find it does taste better with the fresh herbs and caramelized onions and garlic, especially in the middle of winter when we really need a taste of summer! So give it a try, add your favourite fresh ingredients and savor!. After all, that is what good food is all about.
Have a great day everyone.
Have a great day everyone.
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