Tomato Season

We are in one of my favorite times of the year. The days have turned hot and humid, the nights are warm and fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds are available for harvest, including my all time favorite the tomato. In honor of this wonderful time of the year, I thought I would share a recipe that my wife Kelly and I have been using for over 20 years and came from her Aunt Zelda.

Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 bushel tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic(or equal amount of granulated garlic)
3 pounds of onions (white or yellow)
2 hot peppers (I use Jalapenos but other types work well)
2 bell peppers- optional
1 tablespoon basil
2 tablespoons oregano
1/2 cup salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
48 ounces tomato paste

Peel and core the tomatoes (I use boiling water to loosen the skin on the tomatoes, saves a lot of time.) Peel and cube the onions,Chop the peppers and add mix all of the above into a large (12 quart) stock pot. Add the herbs, garlic and salt, bring to a boil and cook until the mixture starts to thicken (depending on what temperature you use, this will take around 90 minutes. Reduce heat, add the tomato paste and sugar and bring to a simmer for about thirty minutes, longer for thicker sauce.(if you add these at the beginning, the sauce has a tendency to stick to the pot and burn. We learned this early on in the process.) The sauce is then ready to can or freeze, it works equally well both ways.

We eat it with our without meat. It is a staple in our fall and winter menus. My only problem it getting enough made to make it through the year. Hope you enjoy this recipe. Please feel free to share other ideas for preserving the goodness of the harvest and remember to buy local!