Spaghetti Sauce (no meat)

 To make Spaghetti Sauce you need a slotted and regular spoon, a jar grabber, funnel, lid grabber (you can buy a kit at walmart) 2 big stainless steel pots, saute pan, and a pressure canner (you buy a pressure canner at walmart for around $70)

Then you will need

30 lb of Tomatoes, 2 Bell peppers, 1 Onions, 6 cloves of Garlic, Some Mushrooms (optional), 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, 2 T oregano, 2 T Basil, 2 T Parsley (I forgot to put it in the picture), 2 Bay Leafs (remove before canning), and 4 t Canning Salt.

So I highly recommend going to your local Farmers Market to buy your Produce if you do not have enough from your own Garden.  Most of the time you can get organic produce for about the same cost as at a super market, and the biggest difference is Freshness!  Anyone who has tasted a garden fresh tomato will know the difference.  When you buy from the super market, even if they just put it out it has still been about a week since that Mater came off of the plant.  When you go to the Farmers Market it's usually picked that morning or the day before, and they are usually Vine Ripened instead of picked green and ripen in transport to the store.

Fill a stainless steel pot about 2/3s full of water and bring to a boil over the stove.  You have to peel the skins off of the tomatoes before you can make any tomato sauce, BBQ, ketchcup, or just canned whole tomatoes.

This is how I set up my Sink.  One basin filled with cold water and Ice, this will cool the tomatoes for non hand burning peeling.  One with a big bowl (for the skins and tops).  One REALLY Big pot to put the peeled Tomatoes in.

Once the water starts to boil you can add the tomatoes.

Add them one at a time.

These almost ripe ones are from my garden.  You don't want to crowd them too much.  Just add about 8-10 tomatoes.  You want to take them out when they start to split.

This is usually how a Roma tomato will split.  Roma's are a good meaty tomato, I like using only these when I can, they have a really good flavor.  The problem is they all never ripen on my plants at the same time, so I just mix whatever is ripe in with the sauce.

This is how a "normal" tomato will usually split.  Mostly in a spiral pattern. 

Once most of the tomatoes split I move them from the boiling water to the cold ice water in my clean sink basin.   Once you do this any tomatoes that hadn't split will usually do so once they hit the cold water.  If they don't you can use a parring knife and make a slice down the skin and you should just be able to grab the outside and slide the tomato out of it's skin.

The skin should just slide off when you pick it up. 

You want to cut the top out, and make sure that all of the skin is off of the tomato.

Go ahead an add the Mater to the Pot once peeled. 

If you were going to just can the whole peeled tomatoes, I would add them to a quart jar and squish as many as would fit in the jar, and add 1 T lemon juice for Pints, and 2 T lemon juice for Quarts.  Along with 1/2 t canning salt for pints, and 1 t canning salt for quarts.

This is about how full my pot is with all of the tomatoes in it.

So some will squish in the process of peeling, and that's fine.

Because in the next step you use an emulsifying blender to liquefy some of the tomatoes. 

I personally like my spaghetti sauce a little more liquid, then chunky.  If you want a chunkier sauce then I would skip this step.

As you can see I leave some of the tomatoes whole.   Once this is done I put the pot on the stove on a medium-high heat.  Then while that starts to simmer, I get the other veggies ready.

I get out my saute pan, and add enough olive oil to cover about 2/3s of the bottom of the pan.

I add the garlic (minced), Bell Peppers, Onions, and Mushrooms.  I cook them on a medium heat until the onions turn translucent.

Once then are cooked they will look like this.

I add them to the pot of tomatoes, oil and all.

Then I add 4 t Canning Salt.  YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CANNING AND REGULAR SALT.   Canning salt is designed to not make your sauce cloudy, like regular salt will once processed in a pressure canner.

Then add 2 T of Oregano.

Then 2 T of Basil

Then add 2 Bay leaves.  Make sure to take them out before you put the sauce in the Jars.

Then as 2 T of Parsley.

Lastly add 1/2 cup Brown Sugar.

It will start to boil.  There will be like a foam on top while its simmering.  I know when its done because that will all disappear.

The sauce will look like this when it is done cooking.  About 30-45 minutes have passed since adding the spices and veggies.  It's then ready to can.

I take my jars out of my dishwasher on a sterile setting.  So they are nice and hot.

Add boiling water to my bowl with the lids and bands in it.

Ladle the spaghetti sauce into the jars, leaving 1 inch of head space.

Make sure to remove the 2 bay leaves when you are putting the sauce in the jars.

I then add 3 quarts of boiling water to the pressure canner.  In case you don't know there are 4 cups in 1 quarts.  So you'll want to add 12 cups of boiling water, along with 2 T vinegar if you have hard water.

Then you add the jars.  I did a mixture of quarts and pints to show you.  These are Pints.  You want to process the Pints for 20 minutes.

You put the lid on per the manufacture.  But if you buy your canner at Walmart, this is most likely what yours will look like.  The center is where the weight goes once it starts boiling steam out (15 pounds).  The bottom circle is the safety.  When there is pressure in the canner, this will pop up.  Once this happens you DO NOT want to try to open the canner.  It will explode.

It takes a little bit, but once the water inside starts boiling it will come out as steam from the top like this.  The safety will also start to pop up.

This is what the safety will look like when it pops up.  Water will usually boil out of it as it is rising.

This is what the weight will look like when it starts to rock.  Once it starts gently rocking then you set your timer for 20 minutes for Pints, or 25 for Quarts.

So once your 20 minutes have passed on the stove.  You simply remove the pressure canner from the burner.  Then you have to wait until the pressure is released from the canner (about an hour).  You can open you pressure canner once the safety falls and looks like this.  BE CAREFUL!  There will be residual steam in the canner that will burn you if you aren't careful.

When the jars come out of the pressure canner they will sometimes look like this.

Once they come out of the canner this is what they will look like. 

Farci mangiare e godere!!!! =  Let us eat and ENJOY!!!!

PS:  When it comes to cooking time, if your sauce is too thin, you can add a small can of tomato paste.