Last summer, as you may recall, was brutally warm. Somehow making fresh marinara sauce and then canning it just did not appeal to me. (It was no accident that old time canning kitchens were outdoors -- separate from the kitchen.) So as we harvested tomatoes, we washed, quartered and froze them with the intent of getting to the canning part in October.
I actually got to it three days ago when I pulled eight bags of frozen tomatoes from the freezer and began to defrost them. When they thawed, I pureed them in the food processor and then sieved the puree to free it from seeds and toughened skin. I added my secret ingredients (basil, crushed garlic and olive oil) and simmered the sauce for about a day until it cooked down.
Meanwhile, I put the jars in the dishwasher to sterilize and the lids into water to boil.
After the sauce had cooked down, I put in the rest of the secret ingredients (grated locatelli, more basil, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of brown sugar (fresh tomatoes can be acidy -- brown sugar helps negate the acid).
And here are the fruits of my labor...Now bring on the spaghetti!
