Need a little help making pasta sauce

[madddawg]

I have lots, probably close to 80 LBS of small, disfigured or damaged tomatoes that I need to process cause people just wont by them, even at a discount.
Last weekend I made 20 pints of Salsa Useing Mrs Wages Seasoning ( I dont have time to cut up veggies when doing this much by myself) And I draind if 10 Quarts worth of juice. Last nite I heated that up and reduced it down to a little less then half that And its still kinda runny.
While that was reducing I washed and cut up about 60 LBS worth intending on grinding them But something came up and I had to put them in the fridge. Might of been a bad thing but I had no choice.
I have something similar to this http://www.amazon.com/Victorio-VKP25...mato+processor.

I still got at least 20 more lbs to wash and cut up. I will take that later today or tomorrow.

Anyway I guess my question is, should I make salsa and strain out some of the juice like I did last weekend and try making Sauce with that,or just pitch it because all the "meat of the mater"s went to salsa .

Or Make A lot of Pasta sauce with everything I got?

Also Some kinda pasta sauce recipe would be nice..By the Gallon!

Thanks!

[Father'sDaughter]

If you 're trying to make sauce using only the watery liquid drained out of the tomatoes, I don't know that it 'll work. That's the stuff one typically tries to get rid of before canning so that you mostly have "the meat" left for sauce. I do know that some will save the liquid for other uses or drastically reduce it and add it back to the thicker sauce.

[z_willus_d]

There are a few recipe's in these threads, and you can find others through the search mechanism on this site. I would use the juice you siphoned off for bisques or just as a healthy drink. Reducing it down into something useful for sauce / salsa is just too much energy, heat, and the result is often a burnt/charred type of product far less in volume than the original.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=211
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=8290

Good luck!
-naysen

[madddawg]

Thanks for the input.
I had a thought after posting originally, I will try grinding it first with the salsa screen. strain it, Then take the meat and run that through the sauce screen. That should help a lot.
Last year I canned some of the juice, And I kinda forgot abut it and didn't drink much of it. I tried some the other day and it was not so good.
Last year when I made sauce I just rain it through the sauce screen and reduced it down for a while and used Mrs. Wagers sauce mix. Yes it was still kinda runny and taste was OK. I am just trying to improve the thickness and flavor

I looked at some of the other recipes before I posted. I was looking for a large quantity type of recipe, Not single serving.
This one here in the salsa and sauces thread threw me off
Preserves (Old Fashioned Tomato)

2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes
16 1/2 cups sugar
1 each lemon
1 package surejel

Peel and crush the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 10
minutes, stirring ocassionally. Grate the rind of the lemon and then
juice it and add to the tomatoes.

Measure 3 cups of fruit and combine sugar. Bring to a full boil and boil
hard for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in surejel. Skim and pour
into hot sterilized glasses. Cover with melted paraffin.
================================================== ====

16 1/2 cups of sugar?? that's like 8lbs
Is that a typo?

[Worth1]

What you need to do is cook the water out of it and remove skins and seeds.

Use one tablespoon of powdered garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Then process in jars.

You dont want to add any other herbs or spices until ten minutes before you serve it over pasta.

So if you want meat in the sauce brown it and put it in the sause.
Then after it is completely cooked add your other herbs and spices.
I like to use tarragon, basil, onion power, fennel and a healthy dose of paprika in mine.
I also add1/4 cup blue cheese and about 4 tablespoons of A1 sauce.
For one gallon of spaghetti sause I will use about 1/4 cup of paprika.

The reason I dont add the stuff till ten minutes before serving is you will cook out all of the flavor.
Darn I just put about 50 miles on my motorcycle and just made myself hungry.
Now I have to go to the store and get some meat.

Worth

[Redbaron]

Can the sauce and don't worry too much if it is a little too runny. Later when you use it simply add a can of tomato paste to thicken it up....assuming you don't have time to reduce it properly.

[madddawg]

Update....
Right off the bat, putting it in the fridge overnight helped, The bottom of the pan had about a gallon of juice in it. That right there helped thicken it up. After I ground it up throu the salsa screen and stained it It was the thickest salsa I ever made with that grinder. I ran about 2 quarts of that through a sauce screen. Not very pleased with the results so I will leave the rest as salsa, and figure out a sauce recipe with the 2 quarts.

As for the juice that I have, I will reduce it down a little and can it Or make it into sauce as is like Redbaron suggested,With my 2 quart recipe.

Worth... How about if I add the spices just before canning? Think that would be OK?

[Worth1]

What Scott said.

I just got back from the store with meat and fixens.
I dont know whether to nap first then cook and take another nap or cook eat and nap.
Maybe I'll have a beer and think on it, no I'll drink and cook.

Worth

[Worth1]

Only add the spices before you can if you dont plan on cooking later for a long time.
The hog wash about cooking spaghetti sauce all day is just that, hog wash.
This comes from one of the best Sicilian cooks and friends I know.
But you have to remember what you put in you cant take out.
You better be darn happy with it or well you know.
I had rather make puree and have options later on.

Worth

[carolyn137]

Just noting that if you go down the page a bit and look for the heading Harvest Time, you'll find a Forum dedicated to recipes and there's LOTS of pasta sauce recipes posted there by the fine TV members who have contributed them.

Carolyn

[bower]

maddawg, my best method for small tomatoes with lots of juice is to cut and toss them with a little olive oil, garlic, salt and some basil/oregano, then roast for half hour at 400 F, let them sit in the oven overnight afterwards which really sucks off the juice. You can run them through the blender afterwards and get a nice thick sauce with great taste.

If you mill them first and just mix in a little olive oil and garlic etc, roasting and letting them stand overnight will still take away a ton of unwanted water without draining off any of the goodness of your fruit.

I don't know why, but roasting seems to really bring out the flavour of tomatoes.

[Old chef]

Bower
Roasting tomatoes really brings out the natural sugars in the tomatoes by dehydrating them a little with out cooking the heck out of them. If you don't want to purée them, just toss them with a little pasta and Parmesan. This time of year I cut some arugula and toss it in also.

Someone please tell me that the sugar quantity is a typo

Old chef

[SharonRossy]

I like to cook tomatoes with a bit of olive oil, then run them thru the food mill. After that I sauté fresh garlic, some olive oil, dried oregano with the tomato sauce and cook that down. Then I put it in containers with a sheet of Saran on top of the sauce, put the lid on and freeze it. I also oven roast tomatoes with garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil and a pinch of sugar. So yummy! You can keep that in the fridge for unite a while. Delicious on pasta or even warm crusty bread! I agree with old chef! Great way to make the most out of tomatoes that are bland or damaged.
Sharon

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by madddawg

Thanks for the input.
I had a thought after posting originally, I will try grinding it first with the salsa screen. strain it, Then take the meat and run that through the sauce screen. That should help a lot.
Last year I canned some of the juice, And I kinda forgot abut it and didn't drink much of it. I tried some the other day and it was not so good.
Last year when I made sauce I just rain it through the sauce screen and reduced it down for a while and used Mrs. Wagers sauce mix. Yes it was still kinda runny and taste was OK. I am just trying to improve the thickness and flavor

I looked at some of the other recipes before I posted. I was looking for a large quantity type of recipe, Not single serving.
This one here in the salsa and sauces thread threw me off
Preserves (Old Fashioned Tomato)

2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes
16 1/2 cups sugar
1 each lemon
1 package surejel

Peel and crush the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 10
minutes, stirring ocassionally. Grate the rind of the lemon and then
juice it and add to the tomatoes.

Measure 3 cups of fruit and combine sugar. Bring to a full boil and boil
hard for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in surejel. Skim and pour
into hot sterilized glasses. Cover with melted paraffin.
================================================== ====

16 1/2 cups of sugar?? that's like 8lbs
Is that a typo?

I use the recipe from Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp. There are a couple recipes for sauce in there and I prefer the "herbed" sauce.
The recipe you just posted appears to have tons of sugar. Are you sure that it's not for tomato jam? I can't imagine any other reason for adding the sure-gel to tomato sauce.
Elle Topp's recipes have been tested for safety. Also, the Blue Book of Canning has some good recipes.
Beware of online recipes unless you know the source. Some of the university extension agencies have good, safe recipes. Also, National Center for Canning and Preserving has excellent recipes and instructions for canning almost everything on their website.
You can freeze whole tomatoes until you get enough for a big batch, then thaw in a strainer. Freezing will cause the cells to break and they release tons of water. Plus, the skins slide right off this way. I strain with my food mill or my Kitchen Aid, only if I'm making more of a thick, paste-like pizza sauce. Otherwise, we don't mind the seeds but some people can't stand them.
I also like to cook in my crockpot and add some red wine. You can change dried herbs, sugar and salt/pepper for a recipe but don't mess with the ratio of onions, garlic, peppers and fresh herbs or you could lower the pH.
I usually cook mine in my crock pot until it's very reduced, thick and wonderful. Takes 8-10 hours. I also use citric acid in each quart but bottled lemon juice is also fine.

[madddawg]

Thanks for all the input, I will try the oven trick next time. Question tho.. Single layer like on a cookie sheet or piled up like in a cake pan?