Sauce time is a labor of love but we enjoy doing it. One weekend in September is set aside to make tomato sauce. We could just buy a jar but homemade is always the best and we know what we are eating, no additives or preservatives. On blustery winter days, we pull a container out and a great pasta dinner is underway.
Need: Tomato mill, a strong arm, 2 bushes of beautiful, fresh Romas ! Later we'll share fave sauce recipes.
Wash, remove ends, quarter.
Assemble the "crusher" ( tomato press) Using a mill, this one is called Roma and it bypasses peeling and coring tomatoes. Grandma should have had one!
Always good to wear an old tee and a cap. Strong arm those little red beauties thru the press. We press 3 x to extract that Roma goodness.
2 bushels yields apx 80 qts of pressed tomatoes. We have stock pots going on all 4 burners...The juice reduces, thickens and begins to turn into a pure, rich tomato sauce as it simmers on stove, apx 6-8 hours. When done, it cools, then poured into containers and placed in freezer and gives our family great sauce until next summer. We love to try different sauce recipes, here are a few of our faves:
After grinding 3x, this is the only waste that left ..skin and seed! We bought our grinder several years ago and it has made the whole process , even canning tomatoes easier. We bought it from Lehmans Hardware Store, in the heart of Ohio's Amish Country. If you've never visited this old fashioned store, its worth the trip! The salesgirl told us that she feeds those scraps to her chickens and they love it.
