Making Summer Last, 101

An inevitable truth: Tomatoes right off the vine from your own garden just can't compare to anything else. I love when August comes and tomatoes really start pouring in, and I can eat caprese salads to my heart's content and still have gorgeous toms leftover for anything I might want to create. I wish I could pick fresh tomatoes year-round, but living in New England, I have to resign myself to a 6-8 week peak season of tomato gluttony, and then get through a year of mealy imposters until next year comes around. One way that I have tried to extend the season lately: canning my own tomato sauce. Sean and I tend to eat a LOT of pasta during the year, and homemade sauce is a delicious reminder of summer--especially welcome in the long winter months.

Canning might sound scary, but it's actually very straightforward and incredibly satisfying when you see all of your jars all lined up in the pantry. To be fair, you do have to know what you're doing, and be very careful of following canning protocol very precisely to protect against spoilage or contamination, but I've been canning for several years now and have never had a problem. If you are ready to try it yourself, invest in a boiling water bath canning kit, which will include a canner (aka a big giant pot), a canning rack to keep the jars elevated inside the canner, and a jar lifter (very helpful since we are dealing with lots of boiling water/hot items here). Jars in varying sizes can be found at hardware stores and some grocery stores seasonally. There are lots of great books to help you get started with canning and learn the ropes, which also have good recipes. I like the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, Joy of Cooking: All About Canning and Preserving, and The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food. There are also good resources online to check out, including http://www.freshpreserving.com/, http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm, and a series of YouTube videos called "Home Canning Basics."

I adapted the following recipe from The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving, and it is totally amazing. I could NOT stop taste-testing it while it cooked, to the point that I was concerned there wouldn't be any left to can. For those of you who are in the Boston area, Russo's is a great place to go for large amounts of local tomatoes at a good price (and they always have fabulous produce), and they still had cases of beautiful local roma tomatoes today for only $16/box. Two other notes if you want to try out this recipe: Sterilizing jars in the dishwasher is easy and a big timesaver, so try that if your dishwasher has that option. Lastly, peeling 8 pounds of tomatoes might sound tedious, but it's not bad at all if you do it right, and I even find it pretty zen. Just score an X in the bottom of each tomato, drop them into boiling water for 1 minute (or until you see the skin start to pull away from the incision), shock them in a bowl of ice water, and the skins will slip right off. Yes, it still takes time to peel and chop them, and yes, you should dedicate several hours to this project, but it's worth every last tomato-y drop.

Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce

Note: This recipe yields 7-8 pint jars of sauce, and can be halved. I wouldn't recommend doubling it, as the recipe as written fills a 7-quart stockpot.

Ingredients:

• 16 cups (about 8 lbs) peeled, coarsely chopped roma tomatoes
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/3 cups red wine
• 1/2 cup 5% red wine vinegar
• 1 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons pickling salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 2 6-oz cans tomato paste

Directions:

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt, sugar, and tomato paste in a very large non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring often, for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until mixture reaches desired consistency.
2. Meanwhile, heat water in boiling water bath canner and sterilize jars. Ladle sauce into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch of head space. Remove any air bubbles in the jar, wipe down jar mouth with a damp kitchen towel, and affix lids and bands. Process pint jars for 35 minutes in a boiling water bath. Allow jars to cool for 12 hours. Remove bands from each jar to ensure the lid is properly sealed, then reattach and tighten bands, label jars, and store in a cool, dry place for up to 1 year.