Sunday, January 20, 2008

pasta sauce recipe

I'm writing down roughly what I've been making so I have a record for next year. I used the pressure cooker as an ordinary pot because it is a good size and has a very heavy bottom.
3kg ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
other veg - 4 zucchini in first batch, 4 red peppers in the second
fresh herbs - oregano and thyme in this instance
1/4 C olive oil

Saute onions and veg and garlic in the olive oil. Add chopped tomatoes and stir fairly often. I have it cooking as I chop the tomatoes. I left this cooking for probably 90 minutes (stirring every few minutes, but it is more forgiving on stirring lapses than making tomato sauce), then let it cool and put it into freezer bags in lots of about 750gm (the size of large bought pasta sauce jars). I put the fresh herbs in on their stems and then pulled them out part way through. For the first batch, I also chopped some silverbeet up and put it in for the last half hour.

I opted for freezing after seeking advice on a few forums and looking around my recipe books and the internet. Seems tomatoes are borderline for preserving without something called a pressure canner. I can't be bothered with all that water bath stuff you have to do with preserving apricots so didn't want to try that either.

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