Mom's Tomato Sauce

Growing up, my grandparents had a huge vegetable garden. When the tomatoes started coming in in the summer, Mom and Big Quin would both make lots of tomato sauce. They froze it so that we had homemade tomato sauce for lasagna and spaghetti sauce all fall and winter. When I got older and attempted Mom’s tomato sauce recipe I ran into two problems:

The recipe starts with 1/2 bushel of tomatoes (28-30 lbs)
This makes a TON of sauce and I don’t have a full size freezer to store it.

Given this I adapted the original recipe to use canned whole tomatoes and I cut the recipe to 1/4 of the original so it only makes about 1 gallon (16 cups) of sauce. Using canned tomatoes also saves a lot of time and effort since the skins have already been removed!!

This tomato sauce is the secret to my Mom’s lasagna and her spaghetti sauce. It is also great with albondigas (meatballs). I’ll post these recipes soon.

1 batch of tomato sauce = 4-5 lasagnas OR 4-5 batches of spaghetti sauce OR 6-7 batches of meatballs

Jump to equipment notes and detailed instructions. See Cook’s Illustrated for recommendations on the best brands of canned tomatoes.

5 from 1 reviews

September 17, 2020

Servings: about 4 quarts

Difficulty: Easy

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By: wandercookeat

Ingredients

4 28oz-cans of whole tomatoes
2 medium onions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 c. fresh parsley
2-3 Tbsp. fresh basil
2-3 Tbsp. fresh oregano
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions

Step 1 Coarsely chop the onions, garlic, parsley, basil, and oregano.
Step 2 In a food processor, add 1 can of tomatoes (including juice) and one quarter of the onions, garlic and herbs. Process for 20-30 sec until tomatoes are blended. Put in large stock pot. Repeat with remaining cans of tomatoes and veggies/herbs.
Step 3 Add brown sugar, salt, and pepper to the stock pot with the tomatoes, veggies and herbs. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
Step 4 When tomato sauce has reduced to a thick, uniform texture remove from heat and let cool for at least 30 min.
Step 5 Pour into 3- or 2-cup freezer containers. Freeze until ready to use.

Jump to detailed instructions.

Equipment Notes

I like using a food processor to process the tomatoes. However, this does leave the seeds in the sauce. (Once they go through the food processor you hardly notice them.) If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a regular blender or an immersion blender instead. If you use an immersion blender, just be sure to process the tomatoes before they get hot or you risk splattering hot tomato sauce on yourself.
If you don’t have any of these appliances, don’t fear: You can make this sauce without processing the tomatoes, it will just be chunky instead of smooth. If you are going to take this approach finely chop the onions & herbs and mince the garlic. Break up the tomatoes with your hands as you put them in the pot. When you stir the sauce you can use the spoon to break up and large chunks of tomato.
If you are a perfectionist and want to get the seeds out of your sauce: Use a food mill instead of the food processor. To use this approach, process the canned tomatoes using the food mill first (before adding the onions, etc.). Put the processed tomatoes in the stock pot. Add the onions, garlic, and herbs to the food processor and add a little of the processed tomatoes to it (for liquid). Process for 20-30 sec until the chunks of onion are the desired size.

Detailed Instructions

Step 1. Coarsely chop the onions, garlic, parsley, basil, and oregano.

Step 2. In a food processor, add 1 can of tomatoes (including juice) and one quarter of the onions, garlic and herbs. Process for 20-30 sec until tomatoes are blended. Put in large stock pot. Repeat with remaining cans of tomatoes and veggies/herbs. This blends up the tomatoes, veggies and herbs to a smooth consistency – no large chunks of tomato or onion.

Step 3. Add brown sugar, salt, and pepper to the stock pot with the tomatoes, veggies and herbs. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Step 4. When tomato sauce has reduced to a thick, uniform texture remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes or longer. This is so you don’t burn yourself when you pour the sauce into containers for freezing.

Step 5. Pour into 3-cup or 2-cup freezer containers. Freeze until ready to use. For lasagna and spaghetti sauce, I use a 3 c. container. For meatballs I use a 2-cup container.