I first started canning tomato sauce when I was in undergrad. This year I did more than usual— I canned over 100 pounds of tomatoes! Luckily I didn’t do this all in one day.

On Labor Day, I canned a box that was at least 25 pounds worth of canning tomatoes from our local farm pickup truck (the first of two boxes from them this year) and some of the fresh tomatoes from my garden. It was my second year making salsa, and I hugely thank my friend Sondra for the recipe! Making salsa is way easier than I thought it would be. The most time consuming part is the prep and cutting everything up. It takes a lot of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeño or other spicier pepper, onions, and some white vinegar. You dice up the veggies very small except the tomatoes, which are chopped larger. Boil it all together in a stock pot to the desired consistency. The box full of tomatoes resulted in 12 pints and one quart of salsa.

This past Saturday, I canned the rest of the tomatoes— another box from the farm truck and at least 50 pounds of heirloom tomatoes from a farm in Aitkin. It was a long day, but it was totally worth it! After washing all of the tomatoes (in batches), I blanched and shocked them so that I could peel them.

My first batch on Saturday was pasta sauce from the farm truck box. The 25 or so peeled pounds went into my giant stock pot to start breaking down and reducing. I squished and crushed the tomatoes in my hands and removed the tough core. I also added a few chopped onions and a decent amount of garlic. After a while, I used our stick blender to get a smooth consistency. Here’s my hint at a great tomato sauce—add the rind from a block of parmesan cheese while it is simmering after blending. After it reduced far enough to fit in my smaller stock pot, I transferred the batch of sauce over so I could start over with the heirloom tomatoes in the giant stock pot. I also added a bit of red pepper flakes, fake salt (since I live low sodium), and some black pepper. Once the sauce is thicker and the rind has lost most (but not all) of the cheese/structure, remove it.

When it got to a good pasta sauce consistency, I added fresh basil and oregano chopped up small. I also mixed in some dried spices to taste and some parmesan melted in, then into the clean and sanitized mason jars and into the water bath! The farm truck box made 13 amazing pint jars of pasta sauce for Andrew and I to use into winter. After the first batch of pasta sauce, Andrew and I used the smaller stock pot to make a spicier batch of salsa—more spicy peppers and hot sauce went into it.

The heirloom tomato sauce that I made was honestly the most delicious sauce I think I’ve ever made. I used the same process as above, but waited a bit longer to add in anything (including the onion and garlic). I think it is probably just the difference of tomatoes—you can definitely tell heirloom tomatoes by taste. It also had a fresh rind vs. the frozen rind I used in the first batch. I only jarred 3 pints of pasta sauce from this set, which went into the canner with the spicy salsa. In the meantime, I continued to reduce the heirloom sauce into a nice, thick pizza sauce. After adding some cheese, I filled up 7 delicious pint jars of pizza sauce to use when we make homemade pizza.