Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil
3 large onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
8oz mushrooms, sliced (about 4 cups sliced)
2 cups chopped celery
1T minced garlic
8 to 10lbs fresh tomatoes
26oz tomato paste
3 to 4 cups tomato juice
4T Italian seasonings
1T salt
1 or 2t red chili peppers, optional (adds a little zest)

OK.. here we go…

You will need a very big pot for all of this. The one I am using is 14 quarts. Sautee in olive oil the onions, green peppers, mushrooms, celery and garlic until soft.

While the veggies are cooking wash the tomatoes

Core them and use a food processor to puree them.. Set them aside until the veggies are done cooking.

When the veggies are soft add the tomatoes…

Add the remaining ingredients

Let this simmer uncovered for an hour or so…..

Now get out 7 quart canning jars. Wash them with hot soapy water. Set them in your sink and fill each one with boiling water to keep them hot. And it helps to test them to see if any might break with the hot water.

Get out 7 rings and 7 new lids. Put them in a pan of water and put on the stove. Heat them up so they are hot and ready to go…

Now fill each jar with 4 cups of sauce. Leave 1 inch head space. Wipe the rim of the jar clean and put a hot lid and ring on. Tighten the ring finger tip tight.

Put the jars in the canner…..

Now at this point I am assuming that if you own a pressure canner you know how to use it.. Soo.. I was not going to do a lot of detail on how to use a canner.. that may be in another post at some point if I thought there was an interest..

In any case.. you will need to process the sauce at 10lbs of pressure for 90 minutes. If you live at higher elevations you will need to adjust this accordingly. After much research on times to process this sauce I settled for 90 minutes. It is nearly impossible to find reliable information on how much time to process some of the individual veggies in the sauce. So I figured I better shoot for safety on this one.

When you are done you will have some beautiful sauce ready for winter….

***Something to note: I did not peel my tomatoes, that worked fine for us. But if you would prefer you can peel them first.

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