Canning Spaghetti Sauce

What do you do when you have a ton of fresh tomatoes to use? You make anything and everything made out of tomatoes that you can think of. For us, it means making stewed tomatoes (I'll try to post some of the many recipes we use for these), taco sauce, BBQ sauce, pizza sauce, and spaghetti sauce.

Of course, you will wash and core your tomatoes first.

We have this wonderful Victoro or Squeez-o strainer that we use for our tomatoes and apples. It's absolutely wonderful for making all of our homemade sauces and pretty easy to use.

An easy trick is to grind your onion and green peppers together in a food processor at the same time.

Now that you have your tomato juice, put it on medium high heat, add onions, peppers, tomato paste, oil, and spices.

We usually have several pots and our roaster going at once since we make approx 40 quarts of spaghetti sauce alone each year. Add your hot peppers and cook until boiling. Stir often.

Once your sauce has reached your desired thickness, time to ladle your hot sauce into your hot, clean jars. 

I follow the Ball canning guidelines when canning spaghetti sauce. Leave 1/2 inch headspace.

Adjust two-piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Grandma Rising's Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 bushel tomatoes (Roma are best)

48 oz tomato paste

1/3 cup salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, basil, oregano, paprika

6 green peppers

3 pounds onions

3 hot peppers

Wash tomatoes and run through Squeez-o strainer. Grind peppers and onions. Mix all ingredients together except for the hot peppers in a roaster on high. Place hot peppers on top. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least one hour.

Pasta Carbonara

Sorry I don't have any pictures of this recipe, we ate it before I thought to take any. This recipe comes from Pillsbury. To see the original recipe, click here.

Pasta Carbonara

INGREDIENTS:


6oz uncooked fettuccine or spaghetti

4 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces (1/4 lb)

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 egg

3/4cup milk

3/4cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4cups fresh baby spinach leaves - I used frozen spinach

3/4cup chopped plum (Roma) tomato (1 medium) - I used a can of diced tomatoes with onion

1/2cup thinly sliced green onions (8 medium)

1 container (6 oz) Yoplait® Greek Fat Free plain yogurt

I added in some frozen peas.

DIRECTIONS:

Cook and drain fettuccine as directed on package. In 10-inch skillet, cook bacon and garlic until crisp. Drain; remove from skillet, and set aside.

In small bowl, slightly beat egg. Beat in milk, Parmesan cheese and pepper. Place cooked fettuccine in skillet. Add milk mixture, spinach, tomato and green onions. Cover; cook about 5 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until spinach is tender. Add peas if desired.

Stir in yogurt; cook over low heat just until heated through

Make Ahead Manicotti

This is a wonderful recipe I found for people on the go that still want a good meal fast. However, the fast part does come with a catch...as the title says, this is a make ahead recipe.

This recipe originally came from the Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats blog. You can find the original recipe by clicking here.

I will say that the shells weren't easy to fill with the cheap ziplock bags I had but I imagine that they're alot easier to fill dry rather than cooked. I don't have an answer for the best way to fill the shells that isn't very messy but I'll keep trying.

Penne with Salmon and Roasted Vegetables

What do you do when you husband comes home with about 4 fish that he just caught? I suggest making penne with salmon and roasted vegetables.

This is my husband showing off one of the Steelhead Trout that he caught. This is a very close relative to salmon so it can easily be substituted for the salmon in this recipe.


To view the original recipe from http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/, please click here.

A few things I did differently from the original recipe include using frozen onions & peppers in place of the leeks. To make a large batch of this recipe since it freezes well, I used an entire box of penne & instead of 1 summer squash, I used 2 summer squash & 2 zucchini. I used 2 of my trout filets instead of just 1 salmon filet & I seasoned them with Montreal steak seasoning. Also, I used an entire jar of pitted olives along with the juice. If you choose to omit them, there isn't as much juice & they add a little bit of saltiness.