Learning to Preserve

    We decided last spring we wanted to learn how to make our own pasta sauce- my parents have been doing it for years and always share what they make with us. The Mr. and I though were enthusiastic to learn and do for ourselves and so we waited and waited and waited- finally this past weekend the Roma tomatoes were ready and we went into action! Once copious amounts of coffee and tea had been consumed all hands headed to the garden.

     Our recipe called for about 20-30 pounds of Roma tomatoes and we had more than enough! Thirty pounds sounds like quite a bit but once the picking commenced with so many helpers the pounds piled up quickly!

these tomatoes were bound for the juicer- and my glass!

    Once we had enough tomatoes the slicing and dicing commenced- we needed celery, garlic, onion and bell peppers- all finely diced. The base for the sauce is really very similar to soup stalk and was much easier than I anticipated. The real work was putting all those Romas through the food mangler which was the Mr.'s job! Once everything was in the pot we just let it simmer for several hours while we chatted and enjoyed Ceasars made with fresh tomato juice out on the deck!

  The end result was this delicious business which we jarred up but not before saving enough for dinner that night! I was really surprised at how simple this entire procedure actually is, I feel what makes this sauce so special are the Roma tomatoes ripened by the Okanagan sun, the garlic that grew a mere fifty feet from where it was cooked and the basil from right out the back door. It's the fresh and really local ingredients that makes this sauce so special!

     We ended up with seven jars of sauce and two jars of tomato juice ( to be made into Ceasars most definitely)- I have a new understanding of the amount of produce it takes to make even just one jar of sauce. Now that we posses the know how me and my Mr. will most certainly be making more of this delicacy to put away for the cold winter months! With the shear volume of pasta consumed in our house not only is it a bit of a necessity but when you know better you do better!

p.s. for anyone confused about what a Ceasar is- it is very much like a Bloody Mary - tomato juice plus vodka equals vacation!