Tomato Starter Made From Tomatoes

As soon as tomatoes come into harvest I know that I will be making the most out of our garden, as well as neighbors, friends, and various family member’s tomato gardens. We also take advantage of our local orchard and local farmer’s markets. I am the one you will hear ask about seconds. If you have never heard of seconds, by all means, let me explain them to you. They are the best kept secret of farmer’s markets and orchards! They are the bruised, less then perfect, sometimes a little moldy, often close to being overly ripe fruit and veggies that they can not sell for full price. Perfect for baking, canning, and creating!!

If you get to know your local farmers they will often be awesome and save them for you. All you have to do is ask. If you not picky and are willing to buy what they have without hesitating, they will often give you an amazing deal. The variety of tomatoes are just one of the things that makes my recipes so incredible. In a previous post I made roasted tomato starter. For those of you that want a more traditional sauce, this one is for you.

From this one magical recipe, I will be able to get homemade tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and tomato paste. Told you it was magical didn’t I. Did I mention easy too? I will tell you now it is time consuming. I simmer mine for several days (HUGE POT) on med low. I do not want to burn the tomatoes. I did that once. It was not a pleasant smell or taste. Lost the ENTIRE pot and learned a valuable lesson.

For this sauce, I am leaving the tomato skins on, the seeds in, and pulp in. Some people do not.  However, I am pureeing it in a blender. This will make a smoother sauce. If you are not planning on using a blender, you will want to skin the tomatoes, as the skins will separate from the tomatoes once heated.

You will need roughly 20 lbs of tomatoes for 5 pints of sauce. Yep, a ton of tomatoes!!!! Doesn’t matter what kind of tomatoes you choose. I personally like the taste of a variety of different tomatoes. It gives the sauces different variations of colors too.  I use both fresh or frozen tomatoes.

Ingredients and Supplies List:

Lots and lots of tomatoes.

A couple of tbs of lemon juice~Optional (I do not use it if I am freezing the sauce.)

A BIG stock pot. Mine is about 34 quarts / 8 gallons

Blender

Cutting Board

Knife

Laddle

Freezer safe mason jars

First remove any mold and cut the tomatoes into wedges.

If using frozen tomatoes now would be a great time to thaw them…most blenders are not appreciative of the frozen variety.

Place wedges into blender and puree.

Add the pureed tomatoes to the pot. Simmer on low.

When using different kinds of tomatoes you will notice the puree being different colors.

Simmer on the stove on med low until it turns the consistency you want for sauce.

You can see the sauce is starting to get there. Still too runny for what I want as a starter. But almost there. Just keep checking until the sauce is the thickness you want.

Now it is ready to be placed in jars for sauce. If you want pizza sauce, cook it down until it is the thickness you want for pizza sauce. Tomato paste is cooked down even further until almost all the liquid has evaporated from the sauce.